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Sherman
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Title: The Call of the Beaver Patrol
or, A Break in the Glacier
Author: V. T. Sherman
Release Date: December 6, 2006 [eBook #20040]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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THE CALL OF THE BEAVER PATROL
Or
A Break in the Glacier
by
CAPT. V. T. SHERMAN
Author of
The War Zone of the Kaiser;
Boy Scouts with Joffre;
The Perils of an Airship;
The Boy Scout Signal, Etc.
[Frontispiece]
[Illustration]
1913
M. A. Donohue & Co.
Chicago
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I--Camping in the Breaker 7
II--The Call of the Pack 15
III--Who Cut the String? 21
IV--A Sensational Discovery 28
V--The Flooded Mine 35
VI--The Beaver Call 41
VII--A Treacherous Foe 47
VIII--They Went Up in the Air 54
IX--Who Discovered the Leak? 60
X--The Boy in the Empty 67
XI--A Knock at the Door 73
XII--A Midnight Robber 79
XIII--One More Hungry Boy 86
XIV--Mine Rats Ready for War 92
XV--A Stick of Dynamite 99
XVI--Caused by a Fall 106
XVII--The Signs in Stones 113
XVIII--Two Hold-Up Men 120
XIX--The Money in Sight 127
XX--Sandy Is Discharged 134
XXI--"I Told You So" 141
XXII--Conclusion 148
Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns
Or, The Light in Tunnel Six
CHAPTER I
CAMPING IN THE BREAKER
"And so I says to myself, says I, give me a good husky band of Boy
Scouts! They'll do the job if it can be done!"
Case Canfield, caretaker, sat back in a patched chair in the dusky,
unoccupied office of the Labyrinth mine and addressed himself to four
lads of seventeen who were clad in the khaki uniform of the Boy Scouts
of America.
Those of our readers who have read the previous books of this series
will have good cause to remember George Benton, Charley ("Sandy") Green,
Tommy Gregory and Will Smith. The adventures of these lads among the
Pictured Rocks of Old Superior, among the wreckers and reptiles of the
Florida Everglades, in the caverns of the Great Continental Divide, and
among the snows of the Hudson Bay wilderness have been recorded under
appropriate titles in previous works.
The four boys were members of the Beaver Patrol, Chicago. Will Smith was
Scoutmaster, while George Benton was Patrol Leader. They wore upon the
sleeves of their coats medals showing that they had passed the
examination as Ambulance Aids, Stalkers, Pioneers and Seamen.
Instructed by Mr. Horton, a well-known criminal lawyer of Chicago, the
boys had reached the almost deserted mine at dusk of a November day.
There they had found Canfield, the caretaker, waiting for them in a
dimly-lighted office. The mine had not been operated for a number of
months, not because the veins had given out, but because of some
misunderstanding between the owners of mines in that section.
The large, bare room in which the caretaker and the Boy Scouts met was
in the breaker. There was no fire in the great heater, and the tables
and chairs were black with dust. A single electric light shone down from
the ceiling, creating long, ghostlike shadows as it swayed about in a
gentle wind blowing through a broken window.
"Well," Tommy Gregory said, as the caretaker paused, "you've got the Boy
Scouts, and it remains for you to set us to work."
"And a sturdy looking lot, too!" grinned the caretaker.
"Oh, Mr. Horton wouldn't be apt to send a lot of cripples!" laughed
Sandy Green. "He's next to his job, that man is!"
"I presume he told you all about the case?" suggested Canfield.
"Indeed he did not," replied Will Smith.
"Not a thing about it?" asked the caretaker.
"He only said that you would give us full instructions."
"That's strange!" Canfield observed thoughtfully.
"Perhaps he thought we wouldn't want to undertake the job if we knew
exactly what it was!" suggested Sandy.
"It is a queer kind of a job," Canfield admitted, "but I don't think you
boys would be apt to back out because of a little danger."
"I have wanted to back out several times," laughed Tommy, "but, somehow,
these others boys wouldn't permit me to."
"Go on and tell us about it," urged Sandy. "Tell us just what you want
us to do, and then we'll tell you whether we think we can do it or not."
"You've got to find two boys!" replied Canfield.
"Mother of Moses!" exclaimed Tommy. "I hope we haven't got to go and dig
up blond-haired little Algernon, or discover pretty little Clarence, and
turn a bunch of money over to him!"
"I think these two boys may have money coming to them," the caretaker
replied. "There must be money back of it or the friends of the lads
wouldn't be giving me cash to spend in their interest."
"Where are these boys?" asked Will.
"I've heard the opinion expressed that the boys are somewhere in the
mine!" answered Canfield. "I can hardly believe that they are, but it
has been suggested that we may as well begin the search under ground."
"Where do these boys belong?" asked George.
"Anywhere and everywhere," was the reply. "Jimmie Maynard and Dick
Thompson came here as breaker boys six months ago. They were ragged and
dirty, and appeared to be as tough as two young bears. They worked
steadily until the day before the mine closed down and then they
disappeared."
"That's easy!" declared Tommy. "They got tired of work!"
"That may be," answered the caretaker, "but they certainly didn't get
tired of drawing their pay. They went away leaving about eight dollars,
the two of them, in the care of the company."
"Then something must have happened to them!" Will suggested.
"Who's looking for these boys?" asked George.
"A New York lawyer," was the reply. "I know nothing whatever about the
man. In fact, I don't know why he wants to find out where the boys are.
He sends me money and tells me to continue my quest until the boys are
found, and then to send them to New York."
"So you have entire charge of the search," said Sandy, tentatively.
"Yes," was the reply, "except for Joe Ventner. He's a detective sent on
from New York by this Burlingame person, the lawyer to whom I referred a
short time ago."
"What part of the world is he searching?" asked Will.
"He seems to think that the boys ran away because of some childish prank
put on by them the night before. They broke some windows in a couple of
shanties down by the tracks, or, at least, the other boys say they did,
and Joe thinks they ran away because of that. He accounts in that way
for their not calling after their pay envelopes."
"So he thinks they've gone out of the country, does he."
"Yes," was the reply. "He comes back here every few days to ask if I
have heard anything regarding the youngsters, and then goes away again.
If you leave it to me, I don't think the fellow is working very hard in
the case. There's a half a dozen saloons in a little dump of a place
about ten miles away, and my idea is that he puts in a good deal of his
time there."
"You don't seem to take to this detective?" asked George.
"Oh, I don't know as he's so much worse than the average private
detective," replied the caretaker. "He's out for his day's wages, and
the easier he can get them, the better it suits him.
"So you don't know who wants these boys, or what they're wanted for?"
asked Will. "Lawyer Burlingame never took you into his confidence so far
as to post you on the details of the case."
"He never did!" answered the caretaker.
"Is he liberal with his money?" asked George.
"He pays all the bills I send in," was the answer. "And seems to keep
this bum detective pretty well supplied with ten-dollar bills."
"We may have to investigate this investigator!" laughed Sandy.
"Did Mr. Horton say anything to you about your lodgings while here?"
asked the caretaker. "It's getting too cold here for me, and we may as
well be shifting to warmer quarters."
"You said a short time ago," Will began, "that you rather thought we
ought to begin this search in the mine itself."
"That's my idea!" answered the caretaker.
"Do you think the boys are hiding in the mine?"
"Well, there are some things connected with the case which point in that
direction," replied Canfield. "For instance, there's a lot of queer
things going on under ground."
"Ghosts?" demanded Tommy.
"You're not steering us up against a haunted mine, are you?" asked
George with a wink at his chum. "That would be too good to be true!"
"I haven't said anything about ghosts or haunted mines," chuckled the
caretaker. "I'm only saying that there are queer things taking place in
the mine. Now there's Tunnel Six," he went on, "I have seen lights there
with my own eyes, when I know there wasn't a person within two miles of
the spot except myself. And I've heard noises, too! These unaccountable
noises which make a man think of graveyards and ghosts."
"But why should two healthy, active boys want to seek such a hiding
place?" asked Will. "It certainly can't be very pleasant in the dark and
damp tunnels! Besides, where would they get their provisions?"
"I'm not arguing the case, lads," the caretaker replied, "I'm placing
the case in your hands without instructions. I only suggest that you
look in the mine first, but you don't have to do that unless you want
to!"
"I don't see how we can find fault with that arrangement!" laughed Will.
"And now," he went on, "let's arrange about our lodgings. In the first
place, who knows that we are here on this job?"
"Not a soul, unless some one saw you coming into the breaker!"
"That's just as it should be," Will went on. "Now I propose that we camp
out in the breaker. There must be a cosy corner somewhere, under the
chutes, or in back of a staircase, or away up under the roof, where we
can camp out while we are going through the mine."
"You won't find the old breaker a very comfortable place to live in,"
suggested Canfield.
"Oh, we can line the walls of some little cubby-hole with canvas if
necessary, and you can string a wire in so as to give us electricity for
heating and lighting, and we can live as comfortable as four bugs in a
rug. If we keep out of sight during the day time, no one will ever
suspect that we are here."
"Have it your own way!" replied Canfield. "I'll see that you get plenty
to eat and plenty of bed clothing."
"That'll help some!" laughed Tommy. "During the night we can travel
through the mine with our lights, and during the daytime we can crawl
into our little beds and sleep our heads off!"
"When do you want your first load of provisions?" asked Canfield.
"Right now, tonight!" replied Sandy.
"Well, come along then," Canfield said, rising from his chair, "and I'll
let you pick out a spot for your camp, as you call it."
After quite an extended search through the breaker the boys selected a
small room on the ground floor, from which one window looked out on the
half-deserted yard where the weigh-house stood. The room was perhaps
twenty feet in size each way, and the walls were of heavy planking. The
whole apartment was sadly in need of a scrubbing, but the lads concluded
to postpone that until some future date.
"I can bring in cot beds and bedding," the caretaker announced, "and
string the electric wire for heating, lighting, and cooking before I go
to bed. That will leave you all shipshape in the morning, and you can
then begin your cleaning up as soon as you please."
The caretaker was as good as his word, and before ten o'clock the cots
and bedding were in place, also an electric heater and an electric plate
for cooking had been moved into the apartment.
Not considering it advisable to go out for supper, Canfield had also
brought in provisions in the shape of bacon, potatoes, eggs, bread,
butter, coffee, and various grades of canned goods, so the boys had made
a hearty meal and had plenty left for breakfast. While cooking they had
covered the one window with a heavy piece of canvas.
"Now you're all tight and snug for the night," the caretaker smiled, as
he turned back from the door and glanced over the rather cozy-looking
room. "If I'm about here during the night, I'll look in upon you again."
Canfield stepped out and closed the door behind him. Then he came back
and looked in again with a half-smile on his face.
"Do you boys know anything about mines?" he asked.
"Not a thing!" replied Tommy.
"Then don't you go climbing down the ladders and wandering around in the
gangways tonight!" the caretaker warned.
"Say, there's an idea!" Tommy said to Sandy, with a wink, as Canfield
went out. "How do you think one of these mammoth coal mines looks,
anyway?"
"Cut that out, boys!" exclaimed Will. "If I catch one of you attempting
the ladders tonight, I'll tie you up!"
"Who said anything about going down the ladders tonight?" demanded
Tommy.
CHAPTER II
THE CALL OF THE PACK
It was somewhere near midnight when the boys sought their beds. Will and
George were soon asleep, but Tommy and Sandy had no notion of passing
their first night in the mine in slumber. Ten minutes after the regular
breathing of the two sleepers became audible, Tommy sat up in his bed
and deftly threw a pillow so as to strike Sandy in the face.
"Cut it out!" whispered Sandy. "You don't have to do anything to wake me
up! I've been wondering for a long time whether you hadn't gone to
sleep! You looked sleepy when the light went out."
"Never was so wide awake in my life!" declared Tommy.
"Well, get up and dress," advised Sandy. "If we get into the mine
tonight, we'll have to hurry!"
"Have you figured out how we're going to get into the mine?" asked
Tommy. "It will be the ladders for us, I guess."
"Of course it'll be the ladders!" replied Sandy. "Do you suppose
Canfield is coming here in the middle of the night to turn on the
power?"
"I wonder how deep the shaft is?" asked Tommy.
"I guess this one must be about five hundred feet."
"Is that a guess, or a piece of positive information?"
"It's a guess," laughed Sandy, drawing on his shoes and walking softly
across the bare floor in the direction of the shaft.
The boys passed out of the sleeping chamber into a passage which led
directly to the shaft of the mine. This shaft was perhaps twenty feet in
width. It included the air shaft, the division where the pumps were
operated, and two divisions for the cages which lifted the coal from the
bottom of the mine. The pumps were not working, of course, and no air
was being forced down.
One of the cages lay at the top so the other must have been at the
bottom of the shaft. As the boys looked down into the shaft, Tommy
seized his chum by the arm and whispered:
"Did you see that light down there?"
"Light nothing!" declared Sandy.
"But I did see a light!" insisted the other.
"Perhaps you did," replied Sandy, "but if there's any light there it's
merely a reflection from our electrics. There may be a metallic surface
down there which throws back the light rays."
"Have it your own way!" grunted Tommy. "You know yourself that the
caretaker said there were lights in the mine which no one could account
for, and he especially mentioned the light in Tunnel Six."
"All right!" Sandy grinned. "We'll sneak down so quietly that any person
who happens to be at the bottom of the shaft with the light will never
suspect that we are within a hundred miles of the place. We may be able
to geezle the fellow that's making the ghost walk around here nights."
The boys took to the ladders and moved down as silently as possible. Now
and then a rung creaked softly under their feet, but they got to the
bottom without any special mishap.
Tommy drew a long breath when at last they landed at the bottom of the
shaft. He threw his light upward, then, and declared that in his opinion
they were at least ten thousand feet nearer the center of the earth than
they were when they started down.
"I remember now," Sandy said with a grin, "that the Labyrinth mine is
only about five hundred feet deep. If I remember correctly, there are
three levels; one at three hundred feet; one at four, and one at five."
"And which level is this?" asked Tommy.
"Why, we're on the bottom, ain't we?"
"Of course," laughed Tommy. "I ought to have known that!"
"Well come along if you want to see the mine!" urged Sandy. "All we have
to do is to push our searchlights ahead and walk down the gangway. We'll
come to something worth seeing after a while."
As the boys advanced they found the gangway considerably cluttered with
"gob," or refuse, and the air was none of the best.
"I wish we could set the air shaft working," suggested Sandy.
"Well, we can't!" Tommy answered with a scornful shrug of his shoulders.
"We can't set the whole works going in order to give us a midnight view
of the Labyrinth mine. What gets me is, how are we going to find our way
back? There seem to be a good many passages here."
"I've got that fixed all right!" Sandy exclaimed.
As the lad spoke he took a ball of strong string from his pocket and
tied one end to the cage which lay at the bottom of the shaft.
"Now we can go anywhere we please," he chuckled "and when we want to
return, all we've got to do is to follow the string."
"Quite an idea!" laughed Tommy.
The boys proceeded along the gangway, walking between the rails of the
tramway by means of which the coal was delivered at the bottom of the
shaft. The experience was a novel one to them. The dark walls of the
passage, the echoes which came from the counter gangways, the monotonous
dripping of water as it seeped through seams and crevices in the rock,
all gave a weird and uncanny expression to the place.
After walking for some distance the boys came to a level which showed
several inches of water.
"We can't wade through that!" Tommy declared.
"Well," Sandy suggested, "if we go back a little ways, we can follow a
cross heading and get into the mine by another way."
The boys followed this plan, and, after winding about several
half-loaded cars which had been left on the tramway, found themselves in
a large chamber from which numerous benches were cut.
"Where does all this gas come from?" asked Tommy stopping short and
putting a hand to his nose.
"There must be a blower somewhere," Sandy explained.
"What's a blower?" demanded Tommy. "What does it look like, and does it
always smell like this?"
"It doesn't look like anything!" replied Sandy. "It's composed of
natural gas, and they call it a blower because it blows up out of
crevices in the coal and in the rocks."
"If I should light a match, would it set it on fire?" asked Tommy.
"I wouldn't like to have you try it!"
The boys continued on their way for some moments, and then Tommy stopped
and extinguished his light, whispering to Sandy to do the same.
"What's that for?" demanded the latter.
"Didn't you hear that noise behind the cribbing?" asked Tommy.
"Rats, probably!"
"Rats nothing!" replied Tommy. "Rats don't make sounds like people
whispering, do they? Keep still a minute, and we'll find out what it
is!"
"You'll be seeing a light next!" Sandy suggested.
"I see it now!" answered Tommy.
Sandy saw it, too, in a moment. It seemed at first to be floating in the
air at the very top of the gangway. It moved from side to side, and
finally dropped down nearer to the floor. There seemed to be no one near
it or under it. Its small circle of illumination showed only the empty
air.
"What do you make of it?" asked Tommy.
"Is this Tunnel Six?" asked his chum.
"I don't know! If it is, we've seen the light the caretaker referred to.
We'll have a great story to tell in the morning!"
The boys stood in the darkness of the gangway watching the light for
what seemed to them to be a long time. Now the light advanced toward
them, now it receded. Now it lifted to the roof of the gangway, now it
dropped almost to the floor.
At intervals, the noises behind the cribbing to which Tommy had referred
were repeated, and the boys at last moved over so as to stand with their
ears almost against the wooden walls.
"There is some one behind the cribbing, all right!" Tommy declared. "I
hear some one breathing."
"Aw, keep still!" whispered Sandy. "If there is anyone there, you'll
frighten them away! I thought I heard some one myself!"
"I'll tell you what I think," Tommy suggested in a moment, "and that is
that either Will and George, or both of them, beat us to this gangway.
They are hiding behind there on purpose to give us a scare."
"That's a dream!" replied Sandy. "We left them both asleep."
"Dream, is it?" repeated Tommy scornfully. "You just listen to the sound
that comes from behind this cribbing, and tell me what you make of it!"
Both boys listened intently for a moment, and then Sandy switched on his
light and moved swiftly along the cribbing as if in search of an
opening. Tommy gazed at him in astonishment.
"You've gone and done it now!" he said.
"There's some one in here all right!" Sandy explained. "Did you hear the
call of the pack a minute ago? There are Boy Scouts in there, and what
we hear are the signals of the Wolf Patrol."
"That's right!" cried Tommy excitedly. "That's right!"
CHAPTER III
WHO CUT THE STRING?
"Do you suppose he would understand the call of the Beaver Patrol?"
asked Sandy. "I'm going to try him, anyway!"
The boy brought his hands together in imitation of the slap of a
beaver's tail on the water, and listened for some reply.
"He'll understand that if he's up on Boy Scout literature," suggested
Sandy. "He ought to be wise to the signs of the different patrols if
he's a good Boy Scout."
There was a short silence, broken only by the constant drip of the water
in an adjoining chamber, and then the call of the pack came again,
clearly, sharply and apparently only a short distance away.
"What did Mr. Canfield call those two boys we are looking after?" asked
Sandy, after waiting a short time for the repetition of the sound.
"Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson," replied Tommy.
Sandy threw out his chest and cried out at the top of his lungs:
"Hello, Jimmie! Hello, Dick!"
The lad's voice echoed dismally throughout the labyrinth of passages,
but there was no other reply. Tommy and Sandy gave the call of the
Beaver Patrol repeatedly, but the call of the Wolf pack was heard no
more.
"I'll bet it's some trick!" exclaimed Sandy after waiting in the chamber
for a long time in the hope of hearing another call from the boys who
were hidden somewhere behind the cribbing.
"What do you mean by trick?" demanded Tommy.
"Why, I mean that some of the breaker boys, out of work because of the
stoppage of operations, may have sneaked into the mine on purpose to
produce the impression that there are ghosts here."
"But ghosts wouldn't be giving signals of the Wolf Pack, would they?"
asked Tommy.
"Not unless they were Scouts," replied the other.
"Oh well, of course the kids would want to test us, wouldn't they,
seeing that we were only boys?"
"Well, we've discovered one thing by coming down," said Tommy, "and that
is that there really are people in the mine who have no business here."
"Then we may as well go back to bed," advised Sandy.
"Do you know how many corners we've turned since we came in here?" asked
Tommy.
"About a thousand, I guess," replied Sandy.
"Yes, and we'd have a fine old time getting out if you hadn't brought
that ball of twine!"
"Tell you what we'll do," Sandy said, as the boys turned their faces
down the gangway, "we'll pass around the next shoulder of rock and then
shut off our lights. Perhaps the kids who gave the cry of the pack in
there will then show their light again."
"That's a good idea, too!"
The boys came at length to a brattice, which is a screen, of either wood
or heavy cloth, set up in a passage to divert the current of air to a
bench where workmen are engaged, and dodged down behind it, first
shutting off their lights, of course.
"Now, come on with your old light," whispered Tommy.
As if in answer to the boy's challenge, the light showed again,
apparently but a few yards away from their hiding place.
A moment later the call of the pack, sounding louder than before, rang
through the passage. The boys sprang to their feet and switched on their
lights.
"Why don't you come out and show yourselves?" shouted Tommy.
"I don't believe you're Scouts at all!" declared Sandy.
There was no answer. The boys could hear the drip of water and the
purring of the current as it crept into a lower gangway, but that was
all.
"That settles it for tonight!" exclaimed Tommy. "I'm not going to hang
around here waiting for Boy Scouts who don't respond to signals!"
"That's me!" agreed Sandy. "We'll go to bed and think the matter over.
There may be some way of trapping those fellows."
"Suppose it should be Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson?" asked Tommy.
"Then we'd have the case closed up in a jiffy!" was the reply.
Before leaving that particular chamber, Tommy selected a large round
piece of "gob," placed it in the center of the open space, and laid
another small piece of shale on top of it.
"What are you doing that for?" demanded Sandy.
"Don't you know your Indian signs?" demanded the boy. "That means 'This
is the trail.' Now I'll put a stone to the right, and that will tell
these imitation Boy Scouts to turn to the right if they want to get
out."
"I guess they can get out if they want to," suggested Sandy.
Thirty or forty feet further on, where, following the string, the boys
turned again, this time to the left, Tommy laid another signal which
showed the direction to be taken.
"There," he said with a grin, "we've started them on the right path. If
they don't want to follow it, that isn't our fault!"
"We must be getting pretty near the shaft," Sandy said, after the boys
had walked for nearly half an hour on the backward track.
"Pull on your string," suggested Tommy, "and see if it stiffens up like
only a short length of it remained out."
Sandy did as requested, and then dropped to the floor with his
searchlight laid along the extension of the cord.
"The other end is loose!" he said in a tone of alarm.
"Loose?" echoed Tommy. "How did it ever get loose?"
Sandy sat down on the floor of the passage and began drawing the cord
in, hand over hand.
"I'm going to see if it's been cut!" he said.
Tommy stepped on the swiftly moving cord and held it fast to the floor.
"You mustn't draw it in!" he exclaimed. "As long as it lies on the floor
as we strung it out, we can follow it without taking any chances. If you
pull it in, then it's all off."
"I understand!" Sandy agreed. "I didn't pull much of it in."
The boys started up the gangway, one of them keeping a searchlight on
the white thread of cord.
They seemed to make a great many turns and once or twice Sandy declared
that they were walking round and round in a circle.
"I don't believe the passages run so we could walk around in a circle!"
argued Tommy. "That ain't the way they run passages in mines!"
"I don't care!" Sandy insisted. "We've been turning to the left about
all the time, and if you leave it to me, we'll presently come out in the
chamber where we heard the call of the pack!"
"That may be right," admitted Tommy. "It does seem as if we'd been
turning to the left most of the time. Besides," he went on, "we've been
walking long enough to have reached the shaft three or four times."
"And yet," argued Sandy, "we've been following the line of the cord
every step. It lies right in the middle of the gangway here, and we're
going the way it points all the time."
This bit of reasoning seemed to give the boys fresh courage, and they
walked on, expecting every moment to come in sight of the frame work
which surrounded the shaft. At length, after a long half hour, Tommy
stumbled over an obstruction lying in a chamber which somehow seemed
strangely familiar. He lifted his foot and gave the obstruction a hearty
kick.
"That's my Indian sign of the trail!" grunted Sandy.
"For the love of Mike!" exclaimed Tommy. "Have we been traveling all
this time to come out in this same old hole at last?"
"That's what we have!" replied Sandy. "If we had paid no attention to
the string whatever and followed the rails when we came to the main gang
way, we would have been home and in bed by this time!"
"But we didn't," grinned Tommy. "We thought we had a cinch on getting
out by way of this cord and so we followed that. I don't see, though,"
he continued, "how we came back to this same old chamber by following
the cord. That looks queer to me!"
"I'll tell you how!" replied Sandy. "There's some gink been walking on
ahead of us stringing the cord out for us to follow!"
Tommy sat down on the bottom of the chamber and wrinkled his freckled
nose provokingly.
"We're a couple of easy marks!" he laughed.
"Easy marks is no name for it!"
"Well, what'll we do now to get out?" Tommy asked. "First thing we know,
it'll be daylight, and then Will and George'll be calling out the police
to find us. We ought to get home before they wake up."
"I'm willing!" declared Sandy. "I'd like to be in my little bed this
minute! I've had about enough of this foul air!"
The boys passed along until they came to the second trail sign and then
stopped. Tommy pointed down to it with a hand which was not quite steady
and looked up into his chum's face with frightened eyes.
"That's been moved!" he said.
"How do you know it's been moved?"
"Because you had the side stone on the other edge."
"I don't think I did!" argued Sandy.
The boys puzzled over the situation for a few moments, and then
proceeded down the chamber looking for the tramway rails.
They passed from chamber to chamber and finally came to a place where
the slope was upward.
"I guess we've struck it at last!" Sandy exclaimed.
"But there are no rails here!" Tommy argued.
"Then we're on the wrong track again," admitted Sandy.
He bent down to the rock with his searchlight and pointed out evidences
that the passage had once been laid with rails.
"When they strip a chamber or a counter gangway," he said, "they take
away the rails. It seems that we are now in a part of the Labyrinth mine
which has been worked out."
"I know what to do!" exclaimed Tommy. "I'll give the call of the Beaver
Patrol and tell those ginks who have been giving the call of the pack
that we're lost! That ought to bring them out of their holes."
The Beaver call was given time after time, but no reply came.
"Say," Tommy said after his patience had become exhausted, "I believe
it's daylight. Look at your watch. I left mine in the bed!"
"I left mine in bed, too," answered Sandy. "I know it is day, because
I'm hungry."
CHAPTER IV
A SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY
When Will awoke he began preparations for breakfast before paying any
attention whatever to his chums, whom he believed to be sleeping quietly
on their cots. It was November, and quite chilly in the apartment, so
his next efforts were directed to coaxing the electric coils into a
cheery glow.
Presently George came tumbling out in his pyjamas and sat down on a
rickety chair to talk of the adventures in prospect.
"I wonder if the Labyrinth mine is so much of a labyrinth after all?" he
asked. "It seems to me that we might find our way through it without
danger of losing ourselves," he continued with a yawn.
"It's some labyrinth, I take it," Will replied.
"Well, we can make chalk marks on the walls as we move along," suggested
George. "Besides," he added, "we can string an electric wire through the
center gangway and turn on the lights."
"There are probably electric lights there now," answered Will.
"Then there's no danger of our becoming lost," George argued.
"I wish you'd go to the back of the room and tip over those two cots,"
grinned Will. "It's the hardest kind of work to get Tommy and Sandy to
bed, but when you do get them in bed once, it's harder still to get them
out of it. Just tip the cots over and roll 'em out on the floor."
George approached the two cots in a stealthy manner and made ready to
give Tommy and Sandy the bump of their lives.
"Don't break their necks!" advised Will.
As soon as George reached Tommy's bunk he stretched forth a hand for the
purpose of tangling the boy up in the bedclothing so that his fall to
the hard floor might be in a measure broken.
As he swung his hand over the cot, however, his eyes widened and he
called out to Will that the boys were not in their cots.
There was a look of alarm as well as of annoyance on each face as the
lads thought over the situation.
"The little idiots!" exclaimed Will.
"That isn't strong enough!" George corrected.
"There's no knowing how long they've been gone," Will suggested. "The
chances are that they went away as soon as we went to sleep."
"In that case, they're in trouble!" George declared.
"In what kind of trouble?"
"The good Lord only knows!" replied George. "Tommy and Sandy can get
into more different kinds of trouble in less time than any other boys on
the face of the earth. They're the original lookers for trouble!"
"Do you suppose they've got lost in the mine?" asked Will.
"It may be worse than that!" cried George. "They may have butted into
some of the people the caretaker indirectly referred to last night."
"He did speak of strange noises and mysterious lights, didn't he?"
"He certainly did, and I've got a hunch that Sandy and Tommy have butted
into some hostile interests.
"It does seem as if they would be back by this time unless they were in
trouble!"
The boys prepared an elaborate breakfast in the hope that Tommy and
Sandy, who would be sure to be hungry, would return in time to partake
of it. A dozen times during the meal they walked back to the shaft
opening and looked anxiously down into the dark bowels of the mine.
"Those fellows are always getting into trouble," Will said, rather
crossly, as he stood looking down. "They have a way of running into most
of their dangers at night, too. It was the same up on Lake Superior; the
same in the snake-haunted Everglades of Florida; the same on the Rocky
Mountains, and the same in the Hudson Bay country."
"They sure do keep things moving," grinned George.
"I think," Will suggested after a time, "that we'd better find Canfield
and get his advice before we do anything in the way of setting up a
search. I hate to admit that two members of our party got into a scrape
on the same night we struck the mine, but I guess there's no way out of
it."
While the boys talked together, the door opened softly and the caretaker
entered, accompanied by a short, paunchy man with a very red face and
eyes which were black, small and suspicious. He was a man well past
middle age, but he seemed to be making a bluff at thirty-five. His hair,
which had turned white at the temples, and his moustache were both dyed
black.
Canfield introduced the new-comer as the detective, Joe Ventner, of New
York, and the boys greeted him courteously.
He accepted their proffered hands with an air of condescension which was
most exasperating. He puffed out his chest, and at once began talking of
some of his alleged exploits in the secret service of the government.
"How did you pass the night, boys?" asked the caretaker.
"Slept like pigs!" replied Will with a laugh.
"Where are the others?" asked Canfield.
"They're out getting a breath of fresh air, I reckon," answered George.
The boys did not take to the detective at all. There was an air of
insincerity about the man which at once put them on their guard.
Had Canfield visited them alone, they would have explained to him the
exact situation. In the presence of this detective, however, they
decided to do nothing of the kind.
"Now then," the detective said after a moment's silence, "if you boys
will outline the course you intend to pursue in this matter, I think we
can manage to work together without our plans clashing."
"We have talked the matter over during the night," Will replied, "and
have decided to remain here only long enough to obtain some clue as to
the direction taken by the boys in their departure."
"Then you think they are not here?" asked the detective.
"There is no reason why they should be here, is there?" asked Will.
"I don't know that there is," relied Ventner.
"Can you imagine any reason for their wanting to linger about the mine?"
asked George.
"No," was the reply. "It has always been my opinion that the boys left
the mine because they feared arrest for some boyish offense committed in
some other part of the country, and that they are now far away from this
place."
Both lads observed that the detective seemed particularly pleased with
the statement that they proposed to abandon the search of the mine
immediately. Somehow, they caught the impression that they would
interfere with his plans if they remained.
"It might be well," Ventner said, directly, "to keep me posted as to any
discoveries you may make. We must work together, you know."
"Certainly," replied Will, speaking with a mental reservation which did
not include the giving up of any information worth while.
"Well, then, I'll be going," the detective said, strutting across the
room, with his little round belly protruding like that of an insect.
"You can always find me at the hotel down here, if I'm in this part of
the country. Just ask for me and I'll show up."
Canfield was turning to depart with the detective when Will motioned to
him to remain. The caretaker turned back with a surprised look.
Will waited until the door had closed on the detective before speaking.
Even then, he went to the door and glanced down the passage.
"Something exciting?" smiled the caretaker, noting the boy's caution.
"Yes," Will answered, "there's something exciting. Tommy and Sandy
disappeared during the night."
"Disappeared?" echoed the caretaker.
"Yes," George cut in, "there was some talk of their visiting the mine
just before we went to bed, and we are of the opinion that they went
down the shaft shortly after we fell asleep, and failed to find their
way to the surface again. We are considerably alarmed."
"I should think you would be!" replied the caretaker. "In the first
place, the Labyrinth mine bears the right name. There are old workings
below which a stranger might follow for days without finding the way
out."
"Then we'll have to organize a search for the boys," George suggested.
"Besides," continued Canfield, "there are things going on in the mine
which no one understands. I have long believed that there are people
living there who have no right to take up such a residence."
"I'm sorry you said anything to this detective about our being here,"
Will said, after this phase of the case had been discussed.
"As a matter of fact," the caretaker replied, "I didn't intend to say
anything to Ventner about your being here, but in some way he received
an intimation that you were about to take up the case and so pumped the
whole story out of me."
"Perhaps he received his information from the New York attorney,"
suggested Will.
"I'm sure that he did not," answered the caretaker. "If the attorney had
written to him in regard to the matter at all, he would have posted him
so fully that when he cross-examined me such a proceeding would have
been unnecessary."
"Has this man Ventner visited the mine often?" asked George.
"Yes, quite frequently."
"Does he always go alone?"
"Yes, he always goes alone," was the answer. "Once I accompanied him to
the bottom of the shaft, but there he suggested that we go in different
directions, and did not seem to want me anywhere near him."
"I don't like the looks of the fellow, and that's a fact!" exclaimed
Will. "He doesn't look good to me."
After some discussion it was decided that the caretaker would accompany
the two boys to the bottom of the shaft and direct them down gangways,
which they could follow without fear of losing their way, and the
illumination of which would be likely to be observed by anyone wandering
about the blind chambers and passages of the mine.
When they reached the bottom of the shaft, climbing down the ladders, as
Tommy and Sandy had done some hours before, they gathered in a little
group at the bottom while the caretaker gave them a few general
instructions regarding the general outlines of the Labyrinth of tunnels,
chambers and cross passages which lay before them.
"Did any one come down after us?" asked Will directly.
"No one," was the reply. "Why do you ask?"
"Because," Will answered, "there's some one skulking off down that
passage, and it looks to me like that bum detective!"
CHAPTER V
THE FLOODED MINE
"What makes you think it's Ventner?" asked the caretaker. "Did you see
his face? I don't think he is here."
"I didn't see his face," answered Will, "but I saw the shape of his
shoulders and the hang-dog look of him."
"You're prejudiced against Ventner," laughed Canfield.
"I admit it!" replied Will. "He looks to me like a snake in the grass. I
don't think anything he could do would look good to me."
"Now," Canfield said, "perhaps we'd better be mapping out a plan of
campaign. Here are three gangways leading in three different directions.
We'll leave one of the lights burning at the shaft, then we'll each take
a light and proceed into the interior, making as much noise as we
conveniently can, and flashing the light into all the chambers and cross
headings we come to."
"How long are these gangways?" asked Will.
"Somewhere near a half a mile straight ahead!" was the answer.
The caretaker went away swinging his electric searchlight, and Will and
George pushed forward in their respective passages.
After proceeding a short distance, George heard Will calling to him.
"There's some one just ahead of me in the gangway!" Will declared. "I
think we ought to go together!"
"Do you think it's that bum detective?" asked George.
"I certainly do!"
"Well, we can go together if you like," George said. "We can't cover
quite as much ground in that way, but I guess we can accomplish more in
the long run!"
The boys had proceeded only a short distance when they heard Canfield
calling to them. A moment later they heard the caretaker's steps ringing
on the hard floor of the gangway down which they were advancing. He came
up to them panting, in a moment.
"There's something mighty queer about this mine," the caretaker
declared. "It was punk dry only two days ago, and now there are four or
five feet of water where the gangway I started to follow dips down.
"And look there!" Will exclaimed holding his light aloft and pointing,
"you can see plenty of water ahead! I guess all the gangways are taking
a washing, and the water seems to be rising, too!"
"Is there any way by which the mine could be intentionally flooded?"
asked George. "There may be some one planning trouble for the owners."
"There is only one way that I know of in which the mine could be flooded
intentionally," replied the caretaker. "There is a large drain, of
course, in what is known as the sump. Considerable water runs off in
that way, and the rest of the drippings are taken out by the pumps. If
this sump drainage should become clogged, the mine, of course, would
become flooded though not to such an extent, unless the pumps were kept
constantly at work."
"Then I guess you'd better set the pumps going," Will suggested. "We
can't get into the mine in its present condition unless we swim."
"Haven't you got a boat?" asked George.
"Why, yes," replied the caretaker. "There's a couple of boats somewhere
in the mine. The operators placed them here thinking they might come in
handy at some future time, but I haven't any idea where they are now.
Still, I think they're not far away."
"If you'll go and set the pumps in motion," Will advised, "George and
I'll look around for the boats. We may need them before the pumps get
under motion the way the water is pouring in now."
"I guess Tommy and Sandy don't come back because they're penned in by
water," George suggested, as the boys began searching the vicinity of
the shaft for the boats.
"If they're anywhere within hearing distance, they ought to answer us
when we called out, hadn't they?" asked Will.
"We haven't tried that yet," George answered. "Suppose we let out a
couple of yells!"
To think in this case was to act, and the boys did let out a couple of
yells which brought the caretaker running back from the shaft.
The boys were listening for some answer to their shouts when he arrived,
and so they paid little attention to his numerous questions.
"There is no time to lose," Canfield went on. "I'll go to the top at
once and call an engineer and a couple of firemen. When you find the
boat, take a trip down the main gangway here and stick your lights into
all the crossheadings and chambers you see. But, above all," he
continued, "don't fail to leave a light here at a shaft, and be careful
that you never pass out of sight of it."
Canfield hastened away, climbing the ladders two rungs at a time, and
soon disappeared into the little dot of light at the top.
The two boys searched patiently for the boat for a long time, but did
not succeed in discovering it. At last, Will suggested that it might be
in the mule stable and thither they went.
The boat was there, in excellent condition, and the boys soon had it
swinging to and fro on the surface of the water which now lay several
feet deep in the main gangway.
"Je-rusalem!" exclaimed George, taking the depth of the water with an
oar, "if the water is four feet deep here, how deep must it be at the
middle of the dip?"
"About forty rods, I should think!" exaggerated Will.
The boys left a large searchlight at the shaft, so situated that it
looked straight down the passage they proposed following, and started
away in the boat. The flashlights illuminated only a small portion of
the underground place, but the boys could see some distance straight
ahead.
Once they ceased rowing to listen, believing that they had heard calls
from the darkness beyond. The sound was not repeated, and they were
about to proceed when a sound which brought all their nervous energy
into full swing reached their ears.
It was the bumping of an oar or paddle against the side of a boat. The
blow echoed through the cavern as sharply as a pistol shot might have
done. There could be no mistake in the cause.
"Now who's in that other boat?"
"Somehow," George grumbled in a whisper, "we always have propositions
like that put up to us! There's always a mystery in every trip we take!
We found one on Lake Superior, and one in the Florida Everglades, and
one at the top of the Rocky mountains and one in the Hudson Bay
wilderness."
"Yes, and we solved them, too!" grinned Will. "And we're going to solve
this one! You remember about my seeing some one sneaking in here just
ahead of us, don't you?"
"Yes," was the answer. "You thought it was that bum detective."
"I think so yet," replied Will.
"If it's the detective," asked George, "why didn't he give the alarm
when he found that the mine was being flooded. He might at least have
done that and saved the company a great deal of expense and trouble."
"Give it up," replied Will. "I might ask you," he went on, "why he was
rowing away into a flooded mine which is supposed to be deserted."
"And I'd have to give you the answer you gave me," George declared.
The boys could now hear the strokes of the oarsman who was in the lead
quite regularly and distinctly. Now and then he turned into
crossheadings and chambers, as if to escape from their surveillance, but
they kept steadily on after him, not taking into account the fact that
they were leaving the light they had set at the shaft far out of view.
"Perhaps we ought to turn back now," George proposed, in a short time,
seeing that they came no nearer to the boat in advance. "We left the
main gangway some time ago, and we ought not to get too far away from
it."
Will turned and looked back, facing only an inky blackness.
"We should have stuck to the main gangway," he said. "I don't even
remember when we left it! Is it very far back?"
"Some distance," answered George. "You see we followed this other boat
without thinking what we were doing."
"Perhaps, if we continue to follow the other boat, it will lead us
somewhere. The fellow rowing must know something about the interior of
the mine or he probably wouldn't be here!"
"I've been listening for a minute or more, trying to catch sound of the
fellow's oars," George went on, "but there's nothing doing. I guess he's
led us into a blind chamber and slipped away!"
"We don't seem to be lacking for excitement," Will suggested with a
grin. "We've lost Tommy and Sandy, and the machinery of the mine has
been interfered with, and the lower levels are filling with water! Any
old time we start out to do things, there's a general mixup!"
"Aw, quit growling and listen a minute," suggested George.
The boys listened only for a moment when the sound George had heard was
repeated. It was the call of the Wolf pack!
CHAPTER VI
THE BEAVER CALL
"That's Tommy!" exclaimed Will.
"I never knew that he belonged to the Wolf Patrol!" George observed.
"He might give the call without belonging to the Patrol!" urged Will.
The boys listened, but the sound was not repeated, although they called
out the names of their chums and gave the Beaver call repeatedly.
"I guess it was a dream," George suggested.
"Then it was the most vivid dream I ever had!" Will declared.
They rowed about the chamber for some moments searching for the source
of the call, but to no purpose.
"Let's go back to the shaft," urged George.
"I'm agreeable," answered Will. "The only question now is whether we can
find the shaft. The water is so deep that all branches of the mine look
alike to me!"
In passing out of the chamber into another passage the boys were obliged
to stoop low in order to avoid what is called a dip.
After passing under the dip so close to the ceiling that the boys were
obliged to lie down in the boat in order to protect their heads, they
came to a large chamber which seemed to be fairly dry save in the
center, where there was a depression of considerable size.
"Nothing doing here!" Will exclaimed as he flashed his searchlight
around the place. "This chamber looks as if there hadn't been an ounce
of coal mined here for a hundred years."
"Then let's get out," George proposed, "and make our way back to the
shaft if possible. If we can't, we'll make noise enough to attract
Canfield's attention and let him come and lead us out."
"Here we go, then," cried Will, giving the boat a great push toward the
dip. "We can't get out any too fast."
The boat came up against a solid projection of rock!
"I don't seem to see any way out!" George exclaimed.
"Well, it's there somewhere!" declared Will.
"I see it now!" cried George. "It's under water!"
"Under water?" repeated Will.
"Yes, under water!" answered George. "If we don't get out of this hole
before the pumps get to working we'll have to swim!"
Will turned his searchlight on the dip and saw that it was now full
clear to the down dropping roof.
"I guess we'll have to swim," he agreed.
"That black water doesn't look good to me," George exclaimed with a
little shudder. "It seems to me that I can see snakes and alligators
wiggling in it from here. Looks worse to me than the swamps of the
Everglades! And there was a quart of snakes to every pint of water down
there!"
"But we got to swim just the same!" urged Will. "In half an hour from
now the air in this chamber will be unbreathable. There is no vent at
all, now that the water fills the dip, and the coal gas is naturally
seeping in all the time."
"That's all right, too!" admitted George. "But I'm not going to jump
into that black water until I have to. If a rope or something should
twine around my legs while I was in there, I'd drop dead with fright!
Besides," he went on, "the chances are that Canfield will get the pumps
going before long now."
The boys waited for a long half hour, during which time the water rose
steadily. It seemed certain that the mine was about to be flooded
throughout all the lower levels.
"Tommy and Sandy may have bumped into just such a situation as this,"
Will said, as he pushed the boat from side to side in the hope of coming
upon some exit from the place.
"Serves 'em good and right!" exclaimed George.
Will chuckled to himself and held a wet hand high up toward the roof of
the chamber or passage.
"There's a current of air here!" he said.
"Then we won't smother to death!" George grunted.
"And, look here," Will continued, as the boat bumped into a pyramid of
shale which had been thrown up to within a few inches of the roof, "some
one has been building this hill of refuse and using it for a refuge!"
"It does look that way," George agreed. "That shows that at some time
the water must have ascended to the very top of the wall. We may have to
climb up there ourselves in order to keep from getting our clothing
soaked in that ink down there!"
The water rose higher and higher in the passage, and it seemed to the
boys that by this time most of the lower gangways were entirely
impassible.
"It doesn't seem to me that the water in this blooming old mine could
rise any faster if the whole Mississippi river were turned into it!"
cried George in a tone of disgust. "If Canfield doesn't get his pumps
going before long, he'll have a job here that'll take him all winter!"
"I presume he's doing the best he can," Will argued. "For all we know,
the boilers as well as the electric motors may have been tampered with.
That would be just our luck!"
"I wonder what's become of that bum detective?" asked George after a
short silence. "We heard him rowing along in front of us one minute, and
the next minute there wasn't a single sound to indicate that there was
another boat in the mine."
"As soon as I get out of this," Will stated, "I'm going to make it my
business to find out whether that detective is regularly employed on
this case. He looks to me like a crook!"
It was dreary waiting there in the sealed-up chamber, and the boys found
themselves dropping into long intervals of silence while they listened
for the gurgle of the water which would indicate that the great pumps
had been set in motion.
During one of those intervals of silence, they heard sounds which
brought them to their feet in great excitement. Almost unable to believe
his ears, Will turned to George with a question on his lips:
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
"Of course I did!"
"I did, too, but I thought I must be dreaming."
"No dream about that!" replied George. "That's the call of the Beaver
Patrol!"
"And that means that Tommy and Sandy are not far away!"
"We heard the call of the Wolf Patrol not long ago," suggested George.
"I wonder if this blooming old mine is chock full of Boy Scouts of
assorted sizes. There can't be too many here to please me!"
The boys returned the Beaver call but no answer came. At times they
thought they heard whispers coming from the dark reaches of the cavern,
but they were not quite certain.
"There may be real Beavers in here for all we know!" suggested Will.
"That's all you know about it!" chuckled George. "Beavers only operate
in running water."
"Well, isn't that water out there running?" asked Will.
"No jokes now!" replied George. "I've got all I can endure now without
standing for any of your alleged witticisms!"
While the boys sat in the boat, occasionally moving it from side to
side, a shaft of light appeared directly above the point where the shale
had been heaped up. It moved swiftly about for an instant and then
dropped out of view. It was a moment before either boy spoke.
"That's some of Tommy's foolishness!" Will declared.
George repeated the Beaver call several times, but no answer came.
"That's a searchlight, anyway!" insisted Will. "And I don't believe
these ginks in the mines have electric searchlights to lug around with
them!"
Will unshipped an oar and struck the water with the flat of the blade
several times, exerting his whole strength.
"Keep it up!" advised George. "That sounds exactly like a beaver's tail
connecting with the surface of a stream!"
"Yes, keep it up!" cried a voice out of the darkness. "Keep it up, and
perhaps some beaver'll come along and build a dam to get you out of that
mess you're in! You're always getting into trouble, you two!"
"You've got your nerve with you!" exclaimed Will, half-angrily. "Here
you go out in the night and get lost, and we come out after you, and the
mine gets flooded, and we get tied up between the solid wall and a
bend in the passage, and then you blame us for getting into trouble!"
"Can you climb?" chuckled Tommy, throwing the rays of his searchlight on
the boat. "If you can, just mount up on that pile of shale and work your
way through the opening between the two levels. This might have been
used as a sort of an air hole a few hundred years ago," he went on, "but
I'll bet that not one out of a hundred of the miners of today know that
there is an opening here!"
Leaving the boat, the boys mounted the pile of shale and were soon
making their way up the rugged face of the shaft in the direction of the
level, which ran along above the one now being flooded.
"Can you find your way out of this dump, now?" asked Will as the boys
stood with their chums at the end of a long passage.
CHAPTER VII
A TREACHEROUS FOE
"There seems to be fewer twists and turns in this level than on the one
below it," Tommy explained, "and I guess we can find our way out readily
enough. If we don't," he went on, "I shall be obliged to eat a ton or
two of coal to keep from starving to death."
"Serves you right!" declared Will. "You had no business getting up in
the middle of the night and wandering off into the mine!"
"What did you do?" demanded Tommy.
"We waited until morning, and then enlisted the services of the
caretaker," replied Will. "So far as I can remember, this is about the
nine hundredth relief expedition we've been out on in search of you
boys!"
"Seems to me," Tommy chuckled, "that you're the lads that were in need
of the relief expedition! We found you boxed up in a chamber in a boat."
"But we wouldn't have been in any such mess if we hadn't started out to
look you up!" George declared.
"We should have been back before you got out of bed this morning, if
some one hadn't cut our string," replied Sandy. "We had a cinch on
getting out, but some geezer led us a fool chase by cutting our cord and
steering us around in a circle."
"Did you see any one?" asked Will.
"Not a soul!" was the reply. "But there's some one in here, just the
same. We heard the call of the Wolf Patrol a long time ago and we've
heard it several times since."
"What do you mean by some one cutting your string?" asked George.
"Why," replied Sandy, "we tied the loose end of a ball of twine to one
of the shaft timbers and unwound the ball as we moved along, expecting
to follow it back when we wanted to get out."
"How do you know some one cut it?" asked Will.
"Perhaps you broke it," George suggested.
Sandy took a piece of the cord from his pocket and passed it over to
George with a sly chuckle.
"See if you can break that!" he said.
George tried his best to break the string, but it remained firm under
all his strength.
The boys now fell into a discussion of the ways and means of getting out
of the mine.
"I believe," Sandy exclaimed, "that if we follow the current of air
which the rising water is forcing out of this old shaft, we will come to
the entrance. As you all know, a current of air takes the shortest way
to any given point, and this one ought to blow straight toward the
shaft."
"Great head, that, little boy!" laughed Tommy.
After proceeding some distance the steady thud, thud of the pumping
machinery was heard, and the boys understood that the efforts of the
caretaker were at last bringing results. The sounds also aided them in
direction, and in a short time they stood at the shaft on the second
level.
When they came out to the timber work, Will, who was in the lead,
motioned to the others to remain in the background.
"What's doing now?" whispered Sandy.
"There's a man working on the ladders," explained Will in a low whisper.
"I can't see him yet, but I can hear the sound of a saw."
"He may be cutting the rungs," suggested Tommy.
"That's the notion I had," replied Will. "Suppose we all get around
behind the air shaft and wait until we can find out what he is up to. It
may be that bum detective, for all we know."
"What would he be doing there?" questioned Sandy.
"Sawing the rungs!" whispered Will. "He wouldn't cut them down, of
course, but he might saw them so that they would break under our weight
and give us a drop of a couple of hundred feet."
"It doesn't seem as if any human being would do a thing like that!"
cried George. "It would be a wicked thing to do!"
While the boys whispered together, the sound of sawing continued. The
man engaged at the task was evidently unfamiliar with such work, for
they heard him puffing and blowing as the saw cut through the wood.
"He's cutting the rungs, all right!" Will said in a moment. "And that
cuts off our escape until the cables can be put in motion and the cages
started. I wish I had him by the neck!"
"We'll get him by the neck, all right, before many days," Sandy cut in,
"if we can only get a sight of him so as to be sure of his identity."
Presently the man ceased working, and they heard him ascending the
ladders, step by step. In a moment the saw which he had been using
dropped from his hands and clattered to the bottom of the shaft.
Then they heard him springing swiftly forward, and directly they knew
that he had reached the top. The boys all looked disgusted.
"And we never caught sight of him!" exclaimed Tommy.
Will now walked around to the front of the shaft and looked down. The
saw which had been used lay shining on the lower level.
"I'm going down after that!" he said in a moment.
"Yes, you are!" whispered Tommy.
"Got to have it!" insisted Will.
"Well, go on and get it, then," laughed Sandy. "You've got to show me!"
"I don't think he cut the rungs between this level and the next one,"
George interposed. "It may be safe to use the lower ladders."
"I can soon find out!" Will declared.
The cutting had been done between the second level and the top. The
ladders below seemed perfectly safe. After testing them thoroughly, Will
trusted himself on one of the rungs and let himself down slowly, bearing
as much weight as was possible on the standards.
He was at the bottom in a moment, and in another moment stood by the
side of his chums with the saw in his hand.
"I don't think that's so very much!" Tommy exclaimed.
"Right here, then," Will explained, "is where you get your little
Sherlock Holmes lesson! This is a new saw, as you all see. It probably
never was used before. Now the man who did the cutting bought this at
some nearby store. Don't you see what it means?"
"That's a fact!" cried Tommy. "We can find out who bought the saw, and
so discover the gink who tried to commit murder by sawing the ladders."
"And look here," Will went on, "do you see these threads hanging to the
teeth of the saw? Do you see the color?"
"Blue!" replied the boys in a breath.
"That's right, blue. Now, what sort of a suit did the detective wear
this morning? It was blue, wasn't it?"
"Sure it was!" replied George. "A blue serge! I noticed it particularly
because it wasn't much of a fit."
"Well, these are blue serge threads!" commented Will.
"That's right, too," admitted Sandy.
While the boys still stood at the second level they heard some one
moving down from the top. Will rushed around to the ladder and looked
up.
He could not see the face of the man who was climbing down, but he could
see that he did not wear a blue serge suit.
In a moment he called out to him, asking some trivial question regarding
the action of the pumps. When the man looked down he saw that it was
Canfield. The caretaker seemed surprised at finding the boys at the
second level. He kept on descending.
"Wait!" Will called. "Stop where you are!"
"But I've got to find out what's the matter with the machinery at the
bottom," the caretaker called out. "There's something wrong there!"
"Then you'd better take long steps," replied Will, "for if you put any
weight on those rungs, you're likely to land at the bottom of the shaft.
The rungs have been cut!"
"I can't believe that!" replied Canfield.
"Suppose you look and see!"
The caretaker advanced cautiously downward until he came to where a fine
line of sawdust lay on one of the rungs.
"Do you know who did this?" he asked.
"We think we do," replied Will, "but this isn't any time for long
stories. The first thing for us to do is to get back into the breaker
and cook Tommy and Sandy three or four breakfasts apiece!"
"So you found them, did you?" asked Canfield.
"No; we found them," shouted Tommy.
"Well, how're you going to get out?" asked the caretaker.
"Get a rope," directed Will, "and throw it over the sound rung lowest
down, and we'll climb up until we can trust our weight on the ladder."
This plan was followed, and in a short time the boys all stood, hungry
and tired, in their room in the breaker. Tommy made an instantaneous
dive for the provisions which had been brought in the night before.
"Nice old time we've had!" he exclaimed, with his mouth full of pork and
beans. "I guess we're some Boy Scouts after all!"
"I'm going to tie you up tonight!" Will declared.
While the boys talked and ate the caretaker darted to the door leading
to the passage which ended at the shaft.
He returned in a moment looking both angry and frightened.
"The pumps have stopped!" he said. "The mine will probably be flooded
before tomorrow morning! The very devil seems to have taken full charge
here today. I never saw anything like it!"
"There are boys in the mine who will be drowned!" exclaimed Tommy.
"I'm not so sure of that!" answered Canfield. "It was only a suggestion
on my part that the boys we are in search of have taken refuge under
ground. I think I must have been mistaken!"
"Do you know whether these breaker boys belonged to the Boy Scouts or
not?" asked Will. "Did you ever see any medals or badges on their
clothing which told of Boy Scout experiences?"
"Sure they belong to the Boy Scouts!" declared the caretaker, "and that
is the very reason why I sent for Boy Scouts to help find them."
"What Patrol did they belong to?" asked Will.
"If you had heard them howling like wolves around the breaker night
after night," was the reply, "you wouldn't ask what patrol they belonged
to!"
"Then they are in the mine!" shouted Tommy. "We all heard the call of
the pack, but the funny thing is that they wouldn't show themselves."
CHAPTER VIII
"THEY WENT UP IN THE AIR!"
"There's something funny-about those boys!" exclaimed Canfield. "They
seemed to be merry-hearted fellows, just a little bit full of mischief,
but for some reason they never mixed with the others much."
"Where did they come from when they came here?" asked Will.
"The information in the letters I received from the attorney in charge
of the case is that they came here from New York, not directly but by
some round-about way."
"Did this attorney ever inform you why he wanted the boys found?" asked
Tommy. "Are we all working in the dark?"
"He never told me why he wanted the boys found. For all I know, they may
be wanted for some crime, or they may be heirs to an immense property.
My instructions are to find them. That's all!"
"Where did these boys lodge?" asked Will.
"They didn't have any regular room," was the reply. "They slept in the
breaker whenever the watchman would permit them to do so, and when he
wouldn't, they threw stones at him and slept in the railroad yard
somewhere. But the strangest part of the whole business is the way they
disappeared from sight."
"You didn't tell us about that!" exclaimed Sandy.
"I meant to," the caretaker answered. "The last seen of them here they
were at work on the breaker. It was somewhere near the middle of the
afternoon, and the cracker boss had been particularly ugly. The two boys
were often caught whispering together, and more than once the cracker
boss had launched such trifles as half pound blocks of shale at them. I
happened to be on the outside just about that time."
"The boys didn't go up in the air, did they?" asked Sandy with a
chuckle. "They haven't got wings, have they?"
"To all intents and purposes, they went up into the air!" answered the
caretaker. "One moment they were on the breaker sorting slate and stuff
of that kind out of the stream of coal which was pouring down upon them,
and the next moment they were nowhere in sight!"
"Had any strangers been seen talking with them?"
"Now you come to a point that I should have mentioned before!" replied
the caretaker. "Two days before they left a strange boy came to the mine
and went to work on the breaker. He was an unusually well-mannered,
well-dressed young fellow, and so the breaker boys called him a dude. He
resented this, of course, and there was a fight at the first quitting
time. These two boys, Jimmie and Dick, stood by the new lad, and gave
three or four of the tough little chaps who work on the breaker a good
beating up."
"Now we've got hold of something!" exclaimed Will. "Were these three
boys together much after that?"
"No," was the reply. "The new boy thanked Jimmie and Dick for helping
him through his scrape, and that was about all. They might have talked
together for five minutes that night, but they were never seen, in each
other's company again so far as I know."
"How long did this new boy stay here?" asked George.
"He quit the next day."
"He didn't go up in a pillar of fire, did he?" grinned Sandy.
"No, he walked up to the office and asked if he could get his pay for
the time he had worked. The boss told him he'd have to wait until
Saturday night, and he turned up his nose and walked out."
"And where did he go?" asked George.
"He said he was going down the river in a boat," answered the caretaker.
"He bought an old boat, stocked it with quite a supply of provisions,
and started on his way. The next day the boat was found bottom side up
on a bar, and the lad's hat lay on the bank not far away."
"Do you think he was drowned?" asked Sandy.
"It would seem so."
"Drowned nothing!" exclaimed Tommy. "He sneaked those provisions into
the mine under cover of the darkness, and the three little rascals are
feeding on them yet. You can see the end of that without a telescope!"
"Now, smarty!" exclaimed George. "You've told us where the boys went,
and where the provisions landed, and all that, now tell us why these
kids hid themselves in the mine. And while you are about it, you may as
well tell why they gave the Wolf call and refused to reply."
"This story," replied Tommy with a grin, "is not a novelette, complete
in one number. It's a serial story, and will be continued in our next
issue. What did you say about the pumps stopping, Mr. Canfield?"
"They've stopped, all right!" the caretaker replied.
"Are you going to let the ginks flood the mine?" asked Sandy.
"While I was out a few moments ago," Canfield explained, "I notified one
of the clerks in the company's office to send up a gang of men to repair
the machinery. They ought to be here by this time."
"How long will it take to repair the pump?" asked Tommy.
"It may take an hour and it may take twenty-four."
"In the meantime," Tommy continued, "do you think you could send one of
the county officers out to round up this bum detective?"
"You mean that you want him watched?" asked Canfield.
"Sure!" answered Tommy. "He sawed the rungs in the shaft, didn't he? He
could get ten years for that!"
"All right," replied Canfield. "I'll send word out and have him arrested
if you are positive that he is the man that did the cutting."
"We are positive that he's the man," replied Will, "but it'll spoil
everything if you have him arrested. We want to give him a free hand for
a time, and see what he will do. He's a crook, and he's bound to show
it! And another thing," the boy went on, "we don't want anyone to know
that he is under suspicion. We just want him watched."
"You're handling the case," smiled Canfield, "and I'll take any steps
you advise. I can't tell you how sorry I am that I brought the detective
in here this morning!"
"Well," Will said, "we put up a bluff about getting out of town and
perhaps we can make that stick. We can take a train out and come back in
on a lonely freight, and get into the mine without his knowing anything
about it. The mine is the best place to work from, anyway!"
"That's why I wanted to know how soon the mine could be pumped out!"
stated Tommy. "I don't care about wading around in a mess of water
that's blacker than a stack of black cats."
"I think I can have the mine fairly dry by the time you boys get out of
town and back again!" laughed Canfield.
"Well," Tommy said, "then you'd better get a couple of dry-goods boxes
and fill them full of good things to eat, and drop 'em down to the first
level. Perhaps you know of a cosy little chamber there where we can set
up housekeeping."
"I know just the place," said the caretaker. "To the left of the old
tool house there's a room where odd articles of every description have
been stored for any number of years. The blacksmith and the fire-boss
used to go there to smoke and tell stories, if I remember right."
"Does anyone ever go there now?" asked Will.
"Not that I know of," was the reply.
"Then we'll drop down there some time towards morning," Will decided.
"And in the meantime," he added, with a wink at his chums, "we'll be
looking for a boy tramp out in the railroad yards."
"What do you mean by that?" asked the caretaker.
"Oh, I've just got an idea," replied Will, "that there's a kid hanging
around this part of the country whom we ought to interview."
"But I don't understand."
"You wait until we get hold of him, and you'll understand all right!"
laughed Will. "We just need that boy!"
"But how do you know there is such a boy?" urged the caretaker.
"He gets it out of a dream book!" Tommy chuckled.
"Do you mean to say that there is some go-between between the boys who
may or may not be in the mine and some persons outside who are
interested in them?" asked the caretaker.
"I didn't say anything of the kind!" replied Will.
"There are times," Tommy explained to Canfield, "when the gift of frank
speech is taken away from Will, so you mustn't blame him for not
answering. He'll tell you all about it when the time comes."
The caretaker went away with a puzzled look on his honest face.
CHAPTER IX
WHO DISCOVERED THE LEAK?
"You've got to explanation me," George laughed, as the caretaker left
the room, and the boys began picking up their clothing, preparatory to
the alleged journey. "I can't understand what you mean by saying that
you'll watch out for a boy tramp in the railroad yards."
"It's a sure thing, isn't it?" Will asked, "that the boys we are in
search of are in the mine? We don't know what they're in there for. They
may be hiding there because of some fool notion they have in their
heads, or they may have been sent here for some definite purpose."
"You bet they've been sent here for some definite purpose," George
replied. "They never came here to work on the breaker without having
some well-defined motive. Boys answering to their description don't
accept such jobs as they accepted here!"
"Well, the boys are in the mine," Will continued. "As stated, we don't
know what they're there for, but we know they're there. Now, this third
boy comes to the mine and works just long enough to get in touch with
the other two. Then he disappears."
"Buys a lot of provisions and goes down the river to leave his hat on
the bank!" laughed Tommy. "I guess that was a pretty poor imitation of a
suicide or a drowning accident, either!"
"But this boy didn't get to be intimate with the two breaker boys,"
contended George. "He talked with them about two minutes after the
fight, according to Canfield, but paid no further attention to them
after that. If he had any secret understanding with them, he must have
done a whole lot of talking in a mighty short space of time."
"The right kind of a boy can say a good deal in a minute and half!"
laughed Tommy. "But suppose we let Will go on and explanation us about
that boy tramp in the railroad yards. I think I know what he's getting
at, but I'm not quite certain. Go on, Will, it's up to you."
"In order to make the connection," laughed Will. "I'll state for the
third time that we know that the boys are in the mine. It may also be
well to state, once more, that we are reasonably certain that this third
boy came to the mine for the specific purpose of communicating with the
other two. Now, this boy didn't drop into the river. He dropped the
provisions he bought for the boat into the coal mine, and left them
there for the consumption of the two boys inside. That's reasonable,
isn't it?"
"Fine deduction, as Sherlock Holmes would say to Watson!" laughed
George.
"But this third boy," Will went on, "doesn't go into the mine. He stays
outside to serve as a means of communication between the boys who are
hiding in the mine and some interested person or persons on the outside.
That's perfectly clear, isn't it?"
"That'll do very well for a theory," replied George.
"I'll go you a plate of cookies," argued Sandy, "that Will is right, and
that this third boy is hanging around taking messages from the two boys
in the mine and also to the two boys in the mine."
"Didn't I say it was all right for a theory?" chuckled George.
"Now, the point is this," Will continued. "What are those boys in the
mine for? What do they want there? Why didn't they answer our Boy Scout
challenge when we replied to their call of the pack?"
"If you don't ask so many questions, you won't get so many negative
answers," Sandy advised. "We're here to find the boys, and I don't see
that it makes any difference to us what they're in there for."
"But we've found the boys now," contended Tommy. "We haven't got our
hands on them yet, of course, but we know they're in there, and we know
it's only a question of time when we get hold of them."
"Well," Will insisted, "I'm going to find a motive before I quit the
case. I'm going to know who sent those boys here, and all about it,
before I make any report to Mr. Horton."
"Go as far as you like," laughed Tommy. "My bump of curiosity is growing
half an inch a day, and will continue to spread out until I find out
exactly what those boys are doing burrowing in a deserted mine."
"Now, we'll get back to the point we started from," Will explained.
"This boy who is undoubtedly doing duty outside the mine in the
interests of the persons who sent the two boys in, furnishes the clue to
the whole situation! When we find him, and find out what he's up to, and
trace any communications he may make back to their original source,
we'll have the whole case tied up tight!"
"That's right!" declared Tommy. "We'll have the case tied up tight if we
succeed in getting hold of this third boy."
"Oh, go on!" laughed Sandy. "We'll be picking third boys and fourth boys
and fifth boys out of the air, first thing you know. We never went away
on a Boy Scout expedition yet that we didn't find all manner of kids
hanging around on purpose to be discovered. We found them on Old
Superior; and in the Everglades; and on the Great Continental Divide;
and up in the Hudson Bay country, we began to think we had stumbled on
the center of population so far as Boy Scouts were concerned!"
"There's just one thing that's likely to make us trouble," Will resumed.
"And that is the fact that Canfield very foolishly slopped over to
Ventner when explaining the purpose of our visit here. That bum
detective knows now that we're here to search the mine. Of course he
might have received, as Canfield says, the most of his information from
outside sources, but the caretaker should have thrown him off the track
instead of telling him exactly what our mission here was."
"But Ventner came here to search for the boys himself!" George broke in.
"At least, he says that he did."
"There's a mystery about the whole matter," Sandy declared, "and I'd
like to help clear it up from beginning to end!"
"We're likely to have a chance!" laughed Tommy.
"What are we going to do all the afternoon?" George asked.
"Wander around town," smiled Will, "and find out about the evening
train, and ask fool questions about the pumps and the mine, and laugh at
the idea of anybody living in there. That'll give Ventner the idea that
we're going for good, I reckon. He's a pretty bum skate to pose as a
detective!"
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do most of the afternoon!" Tommy
declared. "I'm going to the hay! I never felt so bunged up for want of
sleep in my innocent life."
"Haven't you forgotten something?" asked Sandy.
"Sure!" shouted Tommy. "I'm forgetting to eat!"
"And you're forgetting something else!" insisted Sandy.
"Nix on the forget!" declared Tommy. "When I forget my eatings and
sleepings, the world will come to an end!"
"You forgot to read a chapter in your dream book!" said Sandy.
"Never you mind that dream book," Tommy replied. "Whenever you want to
find the answer to any puzzle, you look in that dream book!"
After eating another hearty meal the boys, having already packed their
wardrobes, locked the door of their room and addressed themselves to
slumber.
They were awakened about five o'clock by a loud knocking on the door,
and presently they heard the voice of Canfield calling to them.
"Wake up, boys!" he cried. "I have good news for you!"
"All right, let her go!" shouted Tommy.
"The pumps are working, and the water is lowering in the mine!"
"That's nice!" laughed Sandy.
"And we've found out what caused the sudden flooding," the caretaker
went on. "It seems that a partition, or wall, between the Labyrinth and
the Mixer mines unaccountably gave way. The Mixer mine has been flooded
for a long time and, as it lies above the level of the Labyrinth, the
water naturally flowed into our mine as soon as the wall was down."
"But what caused the partition to fall?" asked Will, opening the door
for the admission of the caretaker.
"No one knows!" was the answer.
"If you look about a little," Tommy suggested, "I think you'll find
traces of dynamite. Who discovered the break in the dividing wall?"
"A gang under the leadership of Ventner, the detective!" was the reply.
The caretaker was very much surprised and not a little annoyed at the
effect his answer had upon the four boys.
"I don't see anything humorous about that!" he said as the lads threw
themselves down on the bunks and roared with laughter.
"It looks funny to me!" Tommy replied. "If we had never showed up here,
the mine wouldn't have been flooded. As soon as we start away or promise
to leave the district, which amounts to the same thing, this cheap skate
of a detective finds the break, and all is well again!"
"Why, you don't think that he had anything to do with the trouble at the
mine, do you?" questioned the caretaker.
"Oh, of course not!" replied Sandy. "Ventner had nothing to do with
cutting the ladder! That fellow will land in state's prison if he keeps
on trying to murder boys by sawing ladder rungs!"
"I had forgotten that," said Canfield.
"Well, don't forget that this man Ventner is playing the chief villain's
role in this drama!" Tommy advised. "And another thing you mustn't
forget," the boy continued, "is that you're not to say a word to him
that will inform him that he is suspected."
"I think I can remember that!" replied the caretaker.
The boys prepared a hasty supper and then, suit cases in hand, started
for the little railway station. There they inquired about the arrival
and departure of trains, bought tickets, and made themselves as
conspicuous as possible about the depot.
"Keep your eye out for the third boy," George chuckled, as the lads
walked up and down the platform.
"Don't get excited about the third boy," Will replied. "We'll find him
when the right time comes!"
"There's Ventner!" exclaimed Tommy as the detective came rushing down
the platform. "Of course the good, kind gentleman would want to bid us
farewell!"
"I'd like to crack him over the coco!" exclaimed Sandy.
"I'll bet he's got some kind of a fake story to tell," suggested Will.
"He looks like a man who had been working his imagination overtime!"
"News of the two boys!" shouted the detective as he came up smiling.
CHAPTER X
THE BOY IN THE "EMPTY"
"Didn't I tell you," whispered Will, "that he is there with a product of
his imagination? If you leave it to him, the two boys we're in search of
are somewhere on the Pacific slope!"
"He must think we're a lot of suckers to take in any story he'll tell!"
whispered Tommy. "A person that couldn't get next to his game ought to
be locked Up in the foolish house!"
"I've just heard from a railway brakeman," Ventner said, rushing up to
the boys with an air of importance, "that the two lads you are in search
of were seen leaving a box car at a little station in Ohio. I don't just
recall the name of the station now, but I can find it by looking on the
map! It seems the lads left here on the night following their departure
from the breaker, and stole their passage to this little town I'm
telling you about."
"Good thing you came to the depot," declared Will. "We should have been
out of town in ten minutes more!"
"Where is this town?" asked George, thinking it best to show great
interest in the statement made by the detective.
"It's a little place on the Lake Erie & Western road!" was the answer.
The detective took a railroad folder from his pocket and consulted a
map. It seemed to take him a long time to decide upon a place, but he
finally spread the map out against the wall of the station and laid his
finger on a point on the Lake Erie & Western railroad.
"Nankin is the name of the place. Strange I should have forgotten the
name of the place. They were put out of the car at Nankin, and are
believed to have started down the railroad right of way on foot."
"But you said they were seen leaving the car at Nankin!" Tommy cut in.
"Now you say they were put out of the car!"
"Well, they were chased out of the car, and that covers both
statements," replied the detective somewhat nervously.
"Thank you very much for the information!" Will exclaimed as the train
the boys were to take came rolling into the station. "The pointer is
undoubtedly a good one, and we'll take a look at the country about
Nankin."
There was a crossing not more than six miles from the station where the
boys had taken the train, and they were all ready to jump when the
engineer slowed down and whistled his note of warning. It was quite
dark, although stars were showing in a sky plentifully scattered over
with clouds and, as the boys dropped down out of the illumination of the
windows as soon as they struck the ground, they were not seen to leave
the train by any of the passengers.
In a moment the train rushed on, leaving the four standing on the
roadbed looking disconsolately in the direction of the town.
"Now for a good long hike!" exclaimed Tommy.
"It's for your own good!" laughed Sandy.
"I can always tell when anything's for my own good," Tommy contended.
"You don't look it!" chuckled Sandy.
"When anything's for my own good," the boy continued, "it's always
disagreeable! It makes me think of a story I read once where the man
complained that everything he ever wanted in this world was either
expensive, indigestible or immoral."
"Well, get on the hike!" laughed George. "You can stand here and
moralize till the cows come home, and it won't move you half an inch in
the direction of the mine!"
"And look here," Will exclaimed as the boys started up the grade, "when
we get within sight of the lights of the station, we must scatter and
keep our traps closed! We can all make for the mine by different routes.
Ventner thinks we are out of town now, and the chances are that he'll be
plugging around trying to accomplish some purpose known only to himself.
For my part I don't believe he is employed on the same case we are! He's
working here for some outside parties!"
"That's the way it strikes me!" George agreed. "If the detective had
been honestly trying to assist us, the mine wouldn't have been flooded,
the pumps wouldn't have broken down, and the electric motors would have
been found in excellent working order."
"Did you notice the suit he had on when he stood talking with us at the
station?" asked Will. "That was a blue serge suit, wasn't it?"
"It surely was!" Tommy declared, quick to catch the point. "And there
was a tear down the front of it which looked as if it had been made by
the scraping of a saw! I guess if you'll match the shreds we found on
the saw with the breaks in that coat front you'll find where the saw got
in its work, all right!"
"And there was a cut on his hand, too!" Sandy observed. "Looked like he
had bounced the saw off one of the rungs on top of a finger."
"Oh, he's a clever little boy all right!" Tommy cut in. "But he forgot
to leave his brass band at home when he went out to cut into that
ladder! If he does all his work the way he did that job, he'll be
sitting in some nice, quiet state's prison before he's six months
older."
When the boys came within a quarter of a mile of the station lights,
they parted, Will and George turning off from the right of way and Sandy
and Tommy keeping on for half a dozen rods. When the four boys were
finally clear of the tracks they were walking perhaps twenty rods apart,
and at right angles with the right of way.
"Now, as we approach the mine," Will cautioned his companion, "keep your
eye out for Ventner and this third boy. They are both likely to be
chasing around in the darkness."
The route to the mine taken by Tommy and his chum crossed a network of
tracks, led up to the weigh-house and so on into the breaker. As they
came to a line of empty cars standing on a spur they heard a movement in
one of the empties and crouched down to listen.
"There's some one in there!" declared Tommy.
"Some old bum, probably!"
This from Sandy who had recently bumped his shins on a pile of ties and
was not in a very pleasant humor.
"It may be the boy we're looking for!" urged Tommy.
Sandy sat down on the end of a tie and rubbed his bruised shin
vigorously, muttering and protesting against railroad yards in general
and this one in particular as he did so.
Tommy made his way under the empty and sat listening, his ear almost
against the bottom of the car. Presently he heard a movement above and
then it seemed to him that something of considerable weight was being
dragged across the floor. This was followed in a moment by a slight
groan, and then a shadowy figure leaped from the open side door and
started away in the darkness.
Now Sandy had been warned to hang onto the third boy like grim death if
he caught sight of him. He saw this figure bounce out of the car and
start away. Therefore, he promptly reached out a foot and tripped the
unknown to the ground.
He fell with a grunt of anger and pain and lay rolling on the cinders
which lined the roadbed for a moment without speaking. In the meantime,
Tommy had crawled out from under the car and stood ready to seize any
second person who might make his appearance.
Almost immediately a second body came bouncing out of the empty.
Instead of starting away on a run, however, the second person stopped
where Sandy stood beside the wiggling figure and looked down upon it.
"Hand him one!" he said in a boy's voice.
"Who is it?" asked Sandy.
"Don't know!" was the reply.
"What was he doing to you?"
"He was trying to rob me!"
"I don't think a man would get rich robbing people who ride in empties!"
laughed Sandy. "I shouldn't think their bank rolls would make much of a
hit with a bold, bad highwayman!"
"There's men riding the rods," was the reply, "who would kill a boy for
a dime! If I wasn't opposed to cruelty to animals, I'd give this fellow
a beating up right now. He tried to drag me from the car by the leg and
nearly broke my ankle!"
"I heard him dragging you across the floor!" Tommy said, coming up to
where the two boys stood. "Can you see who it is?" he added.
"He's just a tramp!" the other replied. "I saw him sneaking around the
empties just before dark."
"Why were you sleeping in an empty?" asked Sandy.
"Because I like plenty of fresh air!" replied the boy with a chuckle.
While the boys talked the tramp arose and sneaked away, limping over the
ties as if tickled to death to get out of the way of the three
youngsters.
As he disappeared in the darkness Tommy turned to the boy who had
dropped out of the car to ask him a question.
The boy was nowhere to be seen.
"Now we've gone and done it!" cried Sandy.
"I guess we have!" agreed Tommy. "We've let the third boy get away from
us! And we couldn't have done a worse thing!" he went on, "because the
boys in the mine will know that we are still in this vicinity!"
While the boys stood blaming themselves the sharp call of the Wolf pack
came to them.
CHAPTER XI
A KNOCK AT THE DOOR
When Will and George came to the back of the weigh-house they heard some
one moving about at the front.
"That's probably the caretaker, taking his last look for the night,"
suggested Will. "He pokes around all the outbuildings every night before
he goes to bed. At least, he is supposed to."
"But this fellow hasn't got any lantern," urged George.
"The plot deepens!" chuckled Will.
"Can you crawl around there and see who it is," asked George, "or shall
I go? It may be a thief, or it may be Ventner, or it may be this boy
we're looking for. Anyway, we want to know who it is!"
"I'll go!" Will suggested, "and don't you make any racket if you hear
something doing there. The one thing to do at this time is to keep our
presence here a profound secret."
Will moved cautiously around the angle of the weigh-house just in time
to see a figure leaving the side of the building and moving toward the
breaker. There was a little side door in the breaker not far from the
weigh-house, and it was toward this that the prowler was making his way.
Half way to the little house the fellow stumbled over some obstruction
in his path and fell sprawling to the ground. He arose with an impatient
oath and moved on again, but not before the watcher had recognized both
the figure and the voice. Will turned back to where George stood.
"That's Ventner," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"Dead sure!"
There was a short silence.
"What can we do now?"
"I don't know of anything we can do, unless it is to watch the rascal
and see where he goes," answered the other. "The chances are that he's
trying to get into the mine!"
"That shows that the fellow's a crook," Will contended. "He has full
permission to enter the mine at any time he sees fit."
"Of course, he's a crook!" agreed George. "What would he be sneaking
around here in the night for, if he wasn't engaged in some underhand
game? You just wait until we get into the mine," the boy continued, "and
we'll give him a ghost scare that'll hold him for a while."
As Ventner approached the little side door leading into the breaker, a
light flashed in the window of the room which the boys had occupied, and
directly Canfield's voice was heard asking:
"Who's there?"
"Now if he's on the square, hell answer!" whispered Will.
There was no reply whatever, and in a moment the caretaker called again,
this time rather peremptorily:
"What are you prowling about the yard for?"
The detective dropped to his knees and began crawling away.
"If I see you around here again," the caretaker shouted in a braver tone
now that the intruder was taking his departure, "I'll do some shooting!"
Evidently giving over the attempt to enter the mine at that time, the
detective arose to his feet as soon as he gained the shelter of the
weigh-house, and walked away, passing as he did so, within a few feet of
where the boys were standing.
"That settles that bum detective, so far as we are concerned!" Will said
to his chum, in a whisper. "We knew before that he was playing a rotten
game on us, but we didn't know that his plans included such
surreptitious visits to the mine."
After making sure that the detective was not within sight or sound, Will
and George tapped softly at the little door and were admitted by the
caretaker. Five minutes later they were joined by Tommy and Sandy.
"Were you boys out there a few moments ago?" asked Canfield.
"Nix!" replied George. "That was Ventner. We saw him from the
weigh-house. He was trying to sneak his way into the mine!"
"But he has full permission to enter at any time he sees fit!" urged the
caretaker. "It doesn't seem as if he would attempt to steal his way in
during the night. You must be mistaken!"
"Yes, and perhaps we were mistaken about the sawing of the ladder, too!"
Tommy broke in.
"Yes, we may all be mistaken about that."
"Not so you could notice it!" declared Sandy. "If you look at the
thief's coat, you'll see that he didn't do all the sawing on the rungs
of the ladder. We've got him too dead to skin!"
Without any lights being shown on the surface, the boys were conducted
down the ladder to the first level. There they found a room very cosily
furnished, indeed. A lounge from the office, a couple of good sized
cupboards, and a large table had been brought down, together with a
serviceable rug and numerous chairs, and the apartment presented an
unexpectedly homelike appearance.
The current was on, and two electric lamps made the room as light as
day. The cooking was to be done over electric coils so that the presence
of the boys would not be disclosed by smoke. One of the ventilating
pipes which supplied the offices in the vicinity of the shaft with fresh
air passed through the room, so there was no lack of ozone.
"Have we got plenty of eatings?" asked Tommy.
"Plenty!" was the reply. "I have arranged for fresh meat, milk and
vegetables to be brought in every evening."
"Talk about your bull-headed, obstinate men!" exclaimed Tommy, as the
caretaker finally took his departure. "That fellow takes the cake! He
knows very well that we caught Ventner in the act of sawing on the
ladder, and he knows, too, that we heard Wolf calls while we were in the
mine. Still, he shakes his head and says that he don't know about the
boys being there, and don't know about that bum detective being crooked.
If you could get a saw and operate on his head, you'd find it solid
bone!"
"You'll feel better after you get supper!" Sandy declared.
"This isn't any grouch!" insisted Tommy. "This is the true story of that
man's life! If I had a dollar for every time he doesn't know anything,
I'd be the richest boy in the world!"
"Are you thinking of going down the mine tonight?" asked George, with a
wink at Will. "We might try another midnight excursion."
"If you kids go into the mine tonight," declared Will, "I'll send you
both back to Chicago on the first train!"
"Aw, how are you going to find these boys if you don't go into the
mine?" demanded Tommy. "I suppose you'll want us to wait till daylight
when the owners will be looking around to see if any damage was done by
the inundation. The best time is at night!"
"Look here," Will argued, "we've got to do more than lay hands on the
boys! We've got to find out why they are hiding in the mine."
"That's the correct word," agreed George. "Hiding is the word that
expresses the situation exactly!"
"There is no doubt," Will continued, "that the boys were sent here by
some one for some specific purpose. They are hiding in the mine with a
well-defined motive. I have an idea that we might be able to find them
in twenty-four hours, but what is more important, is to find out what
they are up to."
"Well, in order to get the whole story, we'll have to pretend that we
are looking for them and can't find them!" George said.
"That's right!" laughed Tommy. "Give them plenty of rope and they'll
hang themselves. We may as well have the whole story while we're at it."
Before preparing their beds for the night, the boys paid a visit to the
shaft and made their way down to the rungs which had been cut. They
found that they had been replaced by new ones.
There was still water in the lower levels of the mine, but it was slowly
disappearing through the sump, and the indications were that it would be
dry by morning. The boys listened intently for some evidence of
occupancy as they moved up and down the shaft, but all was still.
"This would be a good place to tell a ghost story," Tommy chuckled as
they moved back to their room on the first level.
"There's about a million stories now, entitled The Ghost of the Mine!"
declared Sandy. "Perhaps however," he went on, "one more wouldn't hurt."
"If I see a ghost tonight," declared Tommy, "it'll be in my dreams!"
Sandy and Tommy were sound asleep on their cots as soon as supper was
over, and Will and George were getting ready to retire when the soft
patter of a light footstep sounded in the vicinity of the shaft.
"Rats must be thick in the mine!" suggested George.
"Rats nothing!" declared Will. "Those two youngsters are prowling about
in order to see what we are up to!"
As he spoke the boy arose, turned off the electric light and stepped out
into the passage.
CHAPTER XII
A MIDNIGHT ROBBER
There was a quick scamper of feet as Will stepped out, then silence!
"Where did he go?" asked George, joining his chum on the outside.
"Down the ladder!" replied Will.
"Why don't we go and see where he went?"
"That might be a good idea," Will replied. "Do you think it's safe for
us to try to navigate that shaft in the dark?"
"We can stick to the ladders, can't we?" asked George.
"We ought to find out where the kids hang out," Will argued. "I'd like
to get my hands on one of them!"
"I don't think we're likely to do that tonight," George answered. "It
seems to me that about the only way we can catch those fellows is to set
a bear trap. They seem to be rather slippery."
Will, clad only in pajamas and slippers, moved toward the shaft, and
looked down. It was dark and still below, and he turned back with a
little shudder. The situation was not at all to his liking.
"Well, are you going down?" asked George.
"Sure, I'm going down!" Will answered. "I'm only waiting to get up my
nerve! It looks pretty dreary down there. If we could use a light I
wouldn't mind, but it's pretty creepy going down that hole in the
darkness."
"Then suppose we wait until morning," suggested George.
Will leaned against the shaft timbers and laughed.
"It'll be just as dark in here in the morning, as it is now!" he said.
"I think we'd better go on down tonight and see if we can locate the
fellows."
The two boys passed swiftly down the ladder, paused a moment at the
second level, and then passed on to the third. The gangways leading out
from the shaft were reasonably dry now. Lower down the dip they were
still under a few inches of water.
"I don't see how we're going to discover anybody down in this blooming
old well!" George grumbled. "There might be a regiment of state troops
here and we wouldn't be able to see a single soldier!"
"We can't show a light, for all that!" declared Will. "We've just got to
wait and see if _they_ won't be kind enough to show a light."
"You guessed it," chuckled George, whispering softly in his chum's ear,
"there's a glimmer of light, now!"
"I see it!" Will replied.
The boys left the ladder and moved out into the center gangway. They
could see a light flickering some distance in advance, and had no
difficulty in following it.
"That's an electric torch!" Will commented.
"Perhaps, if we follow along, we'll be able to track them to their
nest," George suggested, "and, still, I don't care about getting very
far away from the shaft. We might get lost in these crooked passages."
"Yes," replied Will. "Some one might head us off, too. I don't care
about being held up here in pajamas."
The mine was damp and cold, and a wind was sweeping up the passage
toward the shaft. The boys shivered as they walked, yet kept resolutely
on until the light they were following left the main gangway and
disappeared in a cross heading.
"That means 'Good-night' for me," whispered Will, "for I'm not going to
get out beyond the reach of the rails. I guess well have to go back and
invent some other means of trapping those foxy boys."
As Will spoke the light reappeared and moved on down the gangway again.
Then, for the first time, the boys saw a figure outlined against the
illumination. Will caught his chum by the arm excitedly.
"That isn't one of the boys at all!" he exclaimed.
"Well, how large a population do you think this mine has!" demanded
George. "If it isn't one of the boys, who is it?"
"That bum detective!" answered Will.
"So he got in here at last, did he?" chuckled George. "Well, it's up to
us to find out what he's doing in here!"
"Do you think that is the gink who was prowling around our room?" asked
Will. "If he is, then our little trip in the country doesn't count for
much!"
"The fellow who visited us," George argued, "was light and quick on his
feet. This bum detective waddles along like an old cow."
"Then we've passed the boy who called to see us, and failed to leave a
card," grinned Will. "We may meet him as we return!"
"Here's hoping we bump straight into him if we do meet him," George
exclaimed. "I'm just aching to get my hands on that fellow!"
"I'm not particularly anxious to catch him just yet," Will suggested. "I
want to find out what the kids are up to before we pounce down upon
them."
While the boys stood in the passage, whispering together, the light
moved on until it came to a chamber which seemed to be rather shallow,
for the reflection of the searchlight was still in the gangway.
"Now we've got him!" exclaimed Will. "I think I remember that chamber,
and, unless I'm very much mistaken, it opens only on this passage! While
he's poking around in there, we'll sneak up and see what he's doing!"
Before the boys reached the entrance to the chamber they heard the
sounds of a pick. When they came nearer and looked in they saw the
detective poking away at a heap of "gob" which lay in one corner of the
excavation. He worked industriously, and apparently without fear of
discovery. Now and then he stooped down to peer into a crevice in the
wall, but soon went on again.
"I wonder if he thinks he can find two boys in that heap of refuse?"
laughed George. "I wonder why he don't use a microscope."
The detective busied himself at the heap of refuse for a considerable
length of time, and then began a further investigation of little breaks
in the wall. Using his pick to enlarge the openings he made a systematic
search of one break after another.
"Looks like he might be hunting after some pirate treasure," George
chuckled. "I never heard of Captain Kidd sailing over into the sloughs
of Pennsylvania. Did you?"
"That tells the story!" Will whispered. "The fellow is here on some
mission of his own. That story of his about being in quest of the boys
is all a bluff! I reckon he had heard somewhere that two boys were
missing and came here with the fairy tale!"
"Well, he's got a good, large mine to look in if he's in search of
treasure," George suggested. "He can spend the rest of his days here,
provided the operators don't get sore on him."
While the boys looked, Ventner turned toward the entrance to the
chamber, and they scampered away. Turning back, they saw him pass out of
the place where he had been working and into a similar excavation
farther on. There he worked as industriously as before.
"You see how it is," Will suggested. "The fellow is hunting for
something, and doesn't know where to look for it! So it's all right to
let him go ahead with his quest for hidden wealth, or whatever it is
he's after. When he finds it, we'll not be far away!"
"I like this walking about in my naked feet," George grunted in a
moment. "I had my slippers on when I came down the ladder, but I either
had to take them off and carry them in my hands or lose them in the
mud."
"Same here!" Will said. "I'm going back to my little cot bed right now
and go to sleep. I think we have the detective sized up and we can catch
the kids some other night."
"Me for the hay, too," George exclaimed. "I don't think I was ever quite
so sleepy in my life!"
"Now, on the way back," Will cautioned, "we ought to keep still and keep
a sharp lookout for the person who was sneaking around our quarters."
"Whoever it was may be between us and the shaft," George suggested.
"If I thought so," Will argued, "I'd just stand around and wait until
they pass us on the way in. I don't want to find those boys just now.
There's a mystery connected with this mine which the caretaker knows
nothing about, and which Mr. Horton never referred to when he sent us
down here.
"We wouldn't be able to breathe if we didn't discover an air of mystery
every fifteen minutes," George declared.
Half way back to the shaft, the boys, who were walking very softly in
their stockinged feet, heard a rattle as of a moving stone or piece of
coal in the passage, and at once drew up against the side wall.
While they stood there, scarcely daring to breathe, they sensed that
some one was passing them in the darkness. The tread was light and
brisk, and they thought they heard a soft chuckle as the unseen figure
breezed by them.
"I'll bet the lad who was listening near our door never came down the
shaft until after we did!" George whispered after the figure had passed
by.
"That's very likely!" agreed Will.
"Then he may have been poking around our quarters while we have been
gone."
"That's very likely, too."
Believing the way to be clear now, the boys hastened on toward the
shaft. Just as they reached the foot of the ladder they heard a sound
which sent the blood throbbing to their cheeks.
"He's making fun of us!" exclaimed George.
"It looks like it," admitted Will.
The sound they heard was the low, complaining snarl of the Wolf.
"The nerve of him!" exclaimed George.
"Perhaps he'll answer now!" Will suggested.
Then followed the "slap, slap, slap!" of the Beaver Patrol.
No answer came from the darkness beyond the shaft.
"He's got his nerve with him!" declared Will. "When I get hold of him,
I'll teach him to answer Boy Scout challenges!"
When the boys got back to their quarters they found Tommy and Sandy
sitting in the darkness with their automatics and their searchlights in
their hands. One of them turned on a finger of light as the boys entered
but immediately shut it off again.
"What's coming off here?" demanded Will.
"Do you know what those fellows did?" asked Tommy. "They came here while
we were asleep and stole about half our provisions!"
CHAPTER XIII
ONE MORE HUNGRY BOY
"We may as well turn on the lights!" Will said. "If any one comes in
here to steal Tommy's necktie," he added with a wink at his chum, "we
want to see what he looks like."
"Why didn't you stay here and watch, then?" demanded Tommy. "Why did you
go off and leave the camp all alone? I heard people moving around, and I
thought it was you."
Will and George sat down on the edge of their cots and laughed.
"Yes, you thought it was me!" Will said directly. "You never heard a
thing! You'd better look and see if the midnight visitors didn't steal
your pajamas. Or they might have taken your pillow."
Tommy threw a shoe at his tormentor and turned on the electric light.
"Now that I'm awake," he said with a sly grin, "I think that I'll get
myself something to eat. Seems to me I'm always hungry."
While the boy rattled among canned goods and candled eggs to see if they
were fit for a four-minute boil, Sandy turned to George.
"What did you find in the mine?" he asked.
"We found that bum detective nosing around. We've got his number now,
all right," the boy went on, "and there's something in the mine that he
wants to find and he doesn't know where to look for it. He isn't looking
for Jimmie and Dick any more than we're looking for a pot of gold at the
end of a rainbow. I don't believe he was ever sent here to make a search
for the missing boys!"
"What was he doing when you saw him?" asked Sandy.
"Poking around in worked-out chambers with a pick!"
"Did he see you?"
"You bet he didn't! Do you think we're going to walk six miles in from
the country in order to dodge the detective, and then let him run across
us in the mine?"
"Yes, but what's he looking for?" insisted Sandy.
"That, me son," George replied with a wink, "is locked in the bosom of
the future! We may be able to find out what he's doing here when we find
out who struck Billy Patterson."
"Don't get gay now!" grinned Sandy.
"Well, if you insist upon it," George continued with a smile, "Ventner
was digging in refuse heaps for something which he didn't find!"
"Did you meet the boys who stole our provisions?" was the next question.
"I wish you'd got hold of them!"
"We are certain that one of them passed us while we were returning,"
George answered.
"The nerve of him!" shouted Sandy.
"The idea of his coming here and swiping our provisions!" Tommy cut in.
"If I ever get hold of that gink, I'll beat his head off!"
"You going back after than bum detective tonight?" asked George.
"Not me!" answered Sandy. "Me for ham and eggs!"
"What's the matter with passing the ham and eggs around?"
Every one of the four boys sprang forward as the words came from
somewhere just outside the door.
"That's one of those thieving kids!" declared Tommy.
"You've had your share!" shouted Sandy.
"It has now been nine days since I've tasted food!" came the answer from
the other side of the door, and the boys thought they caught a chuckle
between the words.
"All right!" replied Tommy. "You go and sit in the deserted mine nine
days more, and then we'll consider whether you have any right to be
hungry. Go on away tonight, anyhow!"
"Not so you could notice it," came the insistent tones from beyond the
door. "I'm going to stay right here until I get something to eat!"
"Eat the stuff you stole!" advised Sandy.
"You're in wrong!" came from the other side of the door. "I haven't had
a thing to eat in forty or fifty days. Come on, now," he added "be good
fellows and open up. I'm so hungry I could eat a brass cylinder."
"Aw, let him in!" advised Tommy. "He'll stand there chinning all night
if we don't! We've got enough to eat for the present anyway."
Will unfastened the door and a tall, slender young fellow of perhaps
seventeen stepped inside the room and stood blinking a moment under the
strong electric light. His face was streaked with coal dust and his
clothing was ragged and dirty. Still, the boy looked like anything but a
tramp. Tommy eyed him suspiciously for a moment.
"Where'd you come from?" he asked.
"Off the rods!" was the reply.
"And I suppose," Sandy broke in, "that you were just taking a stroll by
starlight and just happened to walk into this mine."
"Sure!" answered the other with a provoking grin.
"Well, if anybody should ask you," Tommy continued, "you're the boy that
had a mixup with the tramp tonight, and ran away while we were trying to
invite you to supper. What do you know about that?"
"Invite me to supper now and see if I'll run away!"
"If you boys will cut out this foolish conversation for a minute," Will
suggested, "I'll try to find out what this boy wants. Do you mean to
say," he added turning to Tommy, "that you bumped into this kid while
returning to the mine from the tracks?"
"Didn't I tell you about that?" asked Tommy. "I thought I did. We found
him in a mixup with a tramp, and that's all there is to it!"
"And I told you at the time," the stranger interrupted, "that the tramp
tried to rob me! That was all right, too. He did try to rob me, but I
didn't have a blessed cent in my possession, so he didn't get anything!
The tramp who got a hold of me night before last stripped me clean! And
that, you see, is why I haven't got any money to buy provisions with.
And also that's the reason why I'm hungry."
The four boys gathered around the stranger and began a systematic course
of questions which at first brought forth only unsatisfactory answers.
"And also," the boy went on, taking up the speech he had begun some
minutes before, "that's why two other boys are hungry just about this
time. I got rolled for my wad plenty."
"That's South Clark street!" laughed Tommy.
"That's Bowery!" corrected the other.
"What'd you say about other boys being hungry?" asked Sandy.
"I said that's why two other boys are hungry."
"They ain't hungry any more," Tommy declared with a wink.
"That listens good!" the stranger said.
"Because," continued Tommy, "they came in here about an hour ago and
stole everything they could get their hands on."
"Brave boys!" laughed the other.
"You wasn't hiding behind the door when they gave out nerve, either!"
declared Tommy. "Here these boys come here and steal our grub and you
seem to think they did a noble thing! What's your name, anyhow?"
"Buck," was the reply. "Elmer Cyrus Buck, 409 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. C.
Member of the Wolf Patrol, Boy Scouts of America, and just about ready
to scrap for something to eat!"
"Why didn't you say so before?" Tommy exclaimed, setting a great slice
of ham and several freshly boiled eggs, together with bread and butter
and canned tomatoes, before the young man. "Why didn't you say something
about being a Boy Scout before you tried to hold us up for a hand-out?
You seem to go at everything wrong end first!"
"How long since you've seen Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson?" asked
Will. "You must have failed to connect with them tonight!"
"How do you know that?"
"Because, if you had bumped into them, they would have fed you out of
the provisions they stole from us!"
"I haven't been looking for them tonight!" Elmer replied. "I tried to
follow you to the mine," he added turning to Tommy and Sandy, "when you
left me at the car. But, somehow, I lost track of you in the darkness,
and when you finally got into the mine, I had to wait for things to
quiet down before I could force an entrance. I don't think I could have
got in at all if some one hadn't been ahead of me with a jimmy, or an
axe, or something of that kind."
"That must have been Ventner," suggested Will.
"Mother of Moses!" cried Elmer. "Has that fellow got into the mine
again? Does he know you're here?"
"He knew that we were here," was the answer, "but he thinks we've gone
away! He's down in the mine now, hunting for a pot of diamonds in the
refuse cast aside by the miners."
"Well you got into the mine at last," Will suggested, "what is the next
move you are thinking of making?"
"After I finish my modest supper," Elmer answered, with a nod at the
great stack of food which Tommy had piled up on his plate, "I'm going to
give you boys the surprise of your lives!"
"You've pretty near done that now!" laughed Will.
"And I'm going to begin," Elmer resumed, "by fishing two members of the
Wolf Patrol out of the mine and bringing them up here to apologize for
stealing your grub!"
"If you'll do that," replied Will, "we'll forgive you!"
CHAPTER XIV
MINE RATS READY FOR WAR
"Wait till I destroy this hen fruit," Elmer said, "and I'll go down and
bring those two foolish youngsters up with me. It's time we had an
understanding with you boys. You're here looking for something, and
we're here looking for something. Perhaps we would meet with better
success if we talked over our plans."
"What are you looking for?" demanded Tommy.
"Keep it dark," grinned Elmer. "I'm not going to tell you a thing until
I bring Jimmie and Dick up here so they can get next to the whole story!
I guess you boys can work together without scrapping, can't you?"
"When we find the boys," laughed Will, "our job will come to an end!"
"So that's what you came down here after, is it?"
"Yes, we came here to dig two boys out of a mine."
"I don't believe it!" replied Elmer.
"We came here from Chicago for that very purpose," went on Will.
"Who sent you here?" asked Elmer.
"Lawyer Horton."
"Then Lawyer Horton didn't tell you the whole story," laughed Elmer. "He
held out on you boys, just to see if you wouldn't get the story at the
mine. Of course he didn't know where we were at the time he sent you
down here, but he never sent you for the express purpose of finding us!"
"Then why did he send us?" asked Tommy.
"You just wait till I go and bring up Jimmie and Dick, and I'll tell you
all about it! I won't be gone more than a minute."
"But hold on!" cried Sandy. "You mustn't go chasing down into the mine
now. That bum detective is there, and we don't want him to know that
we're anywhere within a hundred miles of this place."
"He doesn't know that we're here, either," commented Elmer. "His notion
is that he drove us all into the next state when he caused the mine to
be flooded. He thinks he has the whole mine to himself now."
"So he caused the mine to be flooded, did he?"
"Sure he did," was the curt reply. "The boys saw him digging away at the
wall which protects this dry mine from the wet one next door."
"So you saw him doing it, did you?"
"I didn't, because I haven't been in the mine before for any length of
time, but Jimmie and Dick saw him."
"We've been told that he made the trouble," Will agreed, "but we weren't
so very sure of it, after all. At least, we didn't have the proof. He
ought to get twenty years for that!"
"Well, if you keep asking me questions all night," Elmer declared, "I'll
never get the boys up here, and you'll never know why you were sent
here! You can come along with me if you want to."
"But how about this detective?" insisted Sandy.
"We ought to be able to get the boys up here without letting him know
that we are in the mine," answered Elmer. "We needn't travel with a fife
and drum corps ahead of us, nor even carry any lights down with us. He's
probably working in some inside chamber."
"All right," Will answered, "we've had our trip through the mine
tonight, so we'll let Tommy and Sandy go with you. Are you sure the boys
will come if you ask them to?"
"Sure they'll come!" was the reply.
The two boys drew on their rubber boots with which they had provided
themselves before taking up their quarters in the mine, and which they
had been too excited to use on a previous occasion, and Will loaned a
pair to Elmer, then they started down the ladders.
"It would be something of a joke if we should butt into that detective
now, wouldn't it?" Sandy laughed, as they passed down from the second
level.
"I shouldn't consider it much of a joke," replied Tommy. "We took a lot
of pains to make him think we'd gone out of town!"
As the boys walked softly down the center gangway they heard a fall of
rock which seemed to come from the passage next north. This passageway
was connected by the main one with a cross-heading situated perhaps
three hundred feet from the shaft.
"I don't know much about mines," whispered Elmer as the boys stopped and
listened to the clatter of the rocks as they settled down on the floor
of the cavern, "but that sounds to me a whole lot like a fall from the
roof. I hope the boys are not injured."
The boys walked faster until they came to the cross-passage and then
turned to the right. Just as they left the main gangway, they heard the
sound of running feet and directly the distant creaking of the ladder
rungs.
"Some one's making a hot-foot for the surface!" exclaimed Tommy.
"That's Ventner!" declared Sandy.
"How do you know that?"
"Because he wears heavy boots. We have rubbers on, and Jimmie and Dick,
who are down in the mine, are also wearing rubber boots!"
"The farther he gets away from the mine, the better it will suit me,"
Elmer broke in. "I wish he'd go away and stay for a hundred years!"
"The chances are that he dug away one of the pillars and caused that
drop from the roof," suggested Sandy.
"I guess that's all right, too," Elmer argued. "If he's been digging
around here the way the boys say he has, he's certainly taking chances
on cutting down more than one column. He ought to be fired out of the
mine!"
The boys now came to a chamber across the entrance to which a great mass
of shale had been thrown when the fall from the roof took place.
At first they listened, fearful that they would hear the voices of the
lads they were in search of beyond the wall, possibly crushed under the
weight of the mass of stone. Then they passed along for a short distance
and peered into the chamber over the heap of refuse.
What they saw brought excited exclamations to their lips.
Jimmie and Dick stood in the interior of the chamber, hedged in by
fallen debris. They were swinging their searchlights frantically from
side to side, and while the boys looked, they began, the utterance of
such yells as had never before been heard in that gloomy place.
"What's the trouble?" asked Elmer, showing his light at the narrow
opening between the roof of the chamber and the pile of refuse.
"Oh, you're there, are you?" asked one of the boys. "We thought perhaps
you'd gone back to New York and left us to starve to death."
"Well, you didn't starve, did you?" asked Elmer.
"Wow, wow, wow!" yelled Jimmie.
"Now, what is it?" asked Elmer.
"Rats!" yelled the boy. "Millions of rats! They're creeping out by the
regiment from behind the cribbing where we were hidden!"
"That idiot of a detective," the other boy went on, "undermined a pillar
and let about half an acre of roof down into this chamber. When the roof
fell, it broke the cribbing and the rats began pouring out."
"They won't hurt you!" declared Tommy. "Only you mustn't go to picking a
quarrel with them. They're fighters when they get their tempers up. Just
let them alone and they'll let you alone!"
"Who's that talking?" demanded Jimmie.
"That's the relief expedition!" laughed Elmer.
"You ought to be fired out of the Wolf Patrol for not answering Boy
Scout signals!" Tommy broke in. "We called to you more than a dozen
times, and you never answered once!"
"Well, we had to wait until Elmer reported what kind of fellows you
were, didn't we?" asked Dick. "We couldn't go and make friends with you
without knowing what you were here for, so we kept out of your way until
Elmer could find a way to learn more about you."
"And instead of finding a way," Jimmie took up the argument, "he goes
off and gets lost in a thicket about six feet square and never shows up
with any grub for twenty-four hours! So we had to go and steal grub off
the boys!"
"Yes, and we're going to have you pinched when you get out!" laughed
Tommy. "You'll get ninety days for that."
"Where'd that bum detective go?" asked Jimmie. "When the roof fell, we
heard him go clattering down the gangway running as though he had only
about thirty seconds in which to get to New York."
"He's a long distance from the mine by this time," Elmer suggested.
"Well," Jimmie said, "I don't like the company of these rats, so if
you'll kindly dig into the refuse on your side, we'll work from this
side and we'll soon be out. These rats look hostile."
"You let 'em alone!" advised Tommy.
"Yes, I'll let 'em alone--not!" shouted Jimmie. "You wait until I get an
armful of rocks and I'll beat some of their heads off!"
"For the love of Mike, don't do anything of the kind!" yelled Tommy.
"They'll climb onto you nine feet thick if you injure one of them!"
But it was too late! Jimmie acquired an armful of large sized pieces of
slate and began tossing them into the huddle of rats in the corner.
For an instant the rats squealed viciously as they Were struck by the
sharp edges of the slate, then they seemed to confer together for a
moment or two, then they spread out like a fan and began moving toward
the two boys.
"Now you've done it!" cried Tommy. "If you don't get out of there in
about a second, the rats'll eat your legs off!"
Without waiting for the boys to assume the offensive, the rats began
screaming and springing at their feet.
The three boys on the outside of the barrier, understanding the peril
their friends were in, crawled up to the top of the wall of refuse which
shut the boys into the chamber and turned their lights inside.
It seemed to them then that the rats were two or three deep on the
floor. There appeared to be hundreds--thousands of them. They circled
around the boys, becoming bolder every moment. They nipped at the rubber
boots and left the marks of their teeth on the tough uppers.
"Now, boys," Tommy yelled, as they drew their automatics and leveled
them over the wall, "shoot to kill! This is no Sunday School picnic! And
while we're shooting, boys, you back up to this wall, and see if you
can't work your way to the top. If you can get up here, we can manage to
displace enough slate to let you through."
The boys fired volley after volley, but the rats came on viciously.
CHAPTER XV
STICK OF DYNAMITE
By this time Jimmie and Dick had their automatics out and were firing
into the horde of rats. They killed the rodents by the score, yet for
every one slaughtered a dozen seemed to appear.
Presently the chamber became so full of powder smoke, the air so
stifling, that the lads were obliged to cease firing.
"Work your way up this wall," Tommy cried out to the lads as he heard
them panting below. "Work your way up so we can catch hold of you, and
you'll soon be out of that mess!"
"There's a dozen rats hanging to my boots!" cried Dick.
"And mine, too!" declared Jimmie.
The three boys on the outside continued to hurl refuse from the top of
the wall into the chamber. This in a measure kept the rats back, and
before many minutes Jimmie and Dick were drawn to the top of the
barrier.
Their rubber boots were cut in scores of places by the sharp teeth of
the rats, and even their clothing as high up as their shoulders showed
ragged tears. A dozen or more rats hung to the boys' boots until the top
was reached, then they dropped back screaming with baffled rage.
"Talk about your wild Indians!" exclaimed Tommy. "I never saw anything
as vicious as that was! I told you boys not to open up an argument with
those fellows! Mine rats are noted for their courage when attacked."
"How many bites did you get?" asked Elmer anxiously.
"I got half a dozen nips!" answered Jimmie.
"And so did I," Dick cut in.
"Well, you boys ought to get back to the room right away," Tommy
suggested, "and have peroxide applied to the wounds. I've known of
people dying of blood poison occasioned by rat bites."
"Have you got it in camp with you?" asked Elmer.
"We're the original field hospital!" laughed Tommy. "We never leave
Chicago without taking with us everything needed in the first aid to the
wounded line. We'd be nice Boy Scouts to go poking about the country
with nothing with which to heal our wounds!"
"Boys," Elmer now said, with a mischievous grin on his face, "I want to
introduce you to Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson. I've heard that your
names are Sandy and Tommy, but that's all I know about it!"
"Green and Gregory!" laughed Tommy. "My name's Gregory. Sandy's name
isn't Sandy at all, but Charley. We call him Sandy because he looks like
he'd been rolled in sand."
"Well, we may as well be getting back to headquarters!" declared Sandy
after these original introductions had been made. "But hold on," he
continued turning back to Jimmie and Dick, with a look on his face
intended to be severe, "aren't you going to bring our provisions back?"
"The provisions," laughed Jimmie, "were hidden in the chamber where the
rats were, and you're welcome to all you can get your hands on now!"
"Oh, well," Sandy groaned, "I suppose we'll have to buy more."
"One difficulty about passing in and out of the mine so frequently,"
Tommy stated, "is that this man Ventner is likely to catch us at it.
There's no knowing what he'll do next if he finds that we're searching
the place. According to Elmer, you know," he continued, "we didn't
finish our job when we landed on you boys. He says the real game is now
about to begin."
"He's right there!" declared Jimmie.
"Strange thing Mr. Horton didn't tell us all about it!" complained
Tommy. "Where was the use of his sending us down here and making monkeys
of us? He ought to be ashamed of himself!"
"He wanted to see whether you could find out what you were here for!"
laughed Elmer. "Perhaps he understood that after you caught us, we'd
tell you all about it. He's a pretty foxy guy, that man Horton, from all
I hear about him! I'm going to Chicago some day to meet him!"
"Well, what is it we've got to look for now?" demanded Sandy.
"You just wait till we get to headquarters!" replied Jimmie.
"We ought to do that just as quickly as possible," Tommy ventured,
"because there's no knowing when that bum detective may return. I'd give
a whole lot of money right now to know what he is looking for!"
The three strangers regarded each other laughingly, evidently well
pleased at the puzzled look showing on the faces of their friends.
"Wait till we get to headquarters and get a square meal under our
belts," Jimmie promised, "and we'll tell you what this bum detective is
looking for. It won't take long to do it, either."
"You know, then, do you?" asked Tommy.
"Of course, we know!"
"Then why don't you tell?"
"Couldn't think of telling on an empty stomach!" laughed Jimmie
provokingly.
As the boys walked along the passage, only a short distance from the old
tool house, they heard a rattling and bumping on the shaft ladders and
instantly extinguished their lights.
Presently they heard footsteps on the hard floor of the gangway, and
then a light such as those being used by the boys flashed out.
"Now we're in for it!" exclaimed Tommy.
"For the love of Mike, don't let him see us!" whispered Jimmie.
"It'll spoil everything if he does," Dick submitted.
The boys crowded close against the wall of the gangway and waited
impatiently for Ventner to pass along.
He was muttering to himself as he moved down the gangway, and his round,
protruding belly and his little shapeless shoulders reminded the
watching lads of the gnomes they had read about, living in underground
cells and preying at night upon the fairies.
Only for a trifling accident the boys would certainly have been
discovered. Just as the detective came to a position ten or fifteen feet
from where they were standing, when he was in a position to see their
faces by the rays cast on ahead by the flashlight, he partly turned his
ankle in a stumble on the rails, and for a moment the rays of the light
were directed downward. He hobbled along, raving and cursing, for a few
steps and then walked briskly on again.
But the ever-watchful eye of the searchlight no longer struck upon the
wall where the boys stood, and they realized that for the present they
were safe from discovery. Ventner moved on down the gangway and soon
disappeared in a cross cutting which ran to the right.
"That's lucky!" exclaimed Jimmie.
"Why didn't we geezle him?" demanded Tommy.
"Because we want his help!" replied Dick.
"His help?" laughed Sandy. "Yes, you'll get his help, all right! That
fellow would get up in the middle of the night to do you a dirty trick,
and don't you ever forget it!"
"That's the way he's going to help us!" laughed Elmer. "He'll get up in
the middle of some dark night to do us a dirty trick, and before he
knows what he's about, he'll be doing us a great kindness!"
"Suppose I slip back there and see what he's doing?" asked Tommy.
"Can you find your way back to headquarters alone?" asked Sandy.
"If I can't," asserted Tommy, "I won't be sending any wireless messages
to you! If you think I'm likely to get lost, Dick can go back with me.
He ought to know every corner in the old mine."
"Sure he does!" laughed Jimmie. "We've been travelling this mine for a
good many nights now, and we know it like a book."
So Tommy and Dick started back down the passage, the intention being to
hasten to the spot where Ventner had disappeared from the gangway, and
then return to their companions immediately.
"We can't stay very long, you know," Tommy explained, "because you've
got to have that peroxide dope put on your bites. It doesn't pay to fool
with wounds of that description!"
"We'll be back to the old tool room as soon as they are!" answered Dick.
"It will take only a minute to run down there and back!"
When the boys reached the cross-cutting into which Ventner had
disappeared, they saw his light some distance away. It seemed to be in
one of the chambers connected with the cross-cutting.
As they looked, the detective stepped forward into the circle of
illumination and began working with a pick.
"Is he always doing that when you see him?" asked Tommy.
"You bet he is!" answered Dick.
"What's he doing it for?"
"You'll have to ask Elmer that."
"But you know, don't you?"
"Of course I know, but I'm not going to tell, because we all agreed that
the story should never be told by any member of our party until Elmer
got ready to tell it. So you see you've got to wait!"
"If I had my way about it," gritted Tommy, "I'd go back there and geezle
that bum detective and wall him up in a chamber until he got hungry
enough to tell the story himself. Then we wouldn't have to go sneaking
around the mine in order to keep out of his way!"
"That would be a foolish move," insisted Dick, "because every stroke of
the pick Ventner takes helps us along in the game we're playing."
"You're the original little mystery boy, ain't you?" said Tommy rather
crossly. "All right, I'll get even."
The detective now moved farther along the cross-cutting and attacked a
column of mingled rock and coal which helped to support the roof.
"The blithering idiot is going to try that trick again!" exclaimed Dick.
"He'll have the whole mine down on our heads if he doesn't stop that
business. He's always cutting down pillars."
"Just say the word," declared Tommy, "and I'll go stop him!"
"Let him go his own gait," replied Dick. "We'll manage to keep out of
the way of the falls, and he can run his own chances."
Presently they saw the detective take something which resembled a stick
of dynamite from a pocket and begin the work of setting it into the
pillar. The boys moved hastily back.
"Now what do you think of that for a fool?" exclaimed Dick. "He'll have
the whole mine down on our heads some day, just as sure as he's a foot
high! I hope he'll be broken in two when the fall comes."
The boys stood some distance away watching the detective as he awkwardly
manipulated the stick of dynamite.
CHAPTER XVI
CAUSED BY A FALL
In the meantime Sandy, Elmer and Jimmie, reaching the old tool house,
found Will and George very wide awake and doing the most extraordinary
stunts of cooking.
"You said that your friends would be hungry," laughed Will, "and so
we're preparing to feed them up fine. After that, you know, you've got
to go on and tell us why we were sent down here without any real
information as to the work we were to do."
"Where did you leave Tommy and Dick?" asked George.
"They went back to see what the detective was up to."
"So he's in the mine again, is he?"
"Yes," replied Sandy, "and if I had my way about it, he'd go out so
quick that he'd think he'd struck a barrel of dynamite."
"If he keeps fooling with dynamite, he's likely to do that anyhow,"
Elmer cut in. "The boys say that he uses dynamite in the search of the
mine he is making. He doesn't know how to use it, either!"
"Then he's got to be fired out of the mine!" declared Will. "We can't
have him around here carrying dynamite in his clothes, and dropping it
on the ground. You might as well give a baby a box of matches and a
hammer to play with. Some day there'll be an explosion."
"Aw, leave him alone for a few days!" Jimmie advised. "He's doing us a
lot of good just now, and we don't want to lose his help."
"His help?" repeated Will.
"He's bully help!" shouted George, with fine sarcasm.
"I guess I'll have to tell you about the mystery of the mine," Elmer
laughed. "Tommy ought to be here to get the story with the rest, but you
can tell him about it later on."
"He ought to be here any minute now," Jimmie asserted.
"Oh, he'll be here all right!" George argued. "Go on with the story.
It's been hours since you came in here with the suggestion that there
was a story, and you haven't told it yet!"
"Yes," Will interrupted, "get busy and tell us what Mr. Horton neglected
to say when he sent us down here; and while you are about it," the boy
went on, "you may as well tell us whether you really became lost in the
mine, or whether you were sent here to do the very things you did do."
"Also," George broke in, "you may as well tell us what the detective is
doing here, and how he is helping you in trying to blow up the mine."
"The boys were never lost in the mine a minute!" replied Elmer, with a
grin, "and Mr. Horton knew it. Mr. Horton received his instructions from
Attorney Burlingame of New York, and I am positive that Burlingame gave
his brother lawyer the whole story."
"Foxy game, eh?" laughed Will.
"I guess they wanted you to find out if we boys were of any account, and
whether we were playing fair!" laughed Jimmie.
"Well, anyway, they expected you to find us and learn the story I'm now
going to tell," Elmer continued.
"Je--rusalem!" exclaimed Will. "Why don't you get at it. That story has
been jumping from tongue to tongue clothed in mystery for hours and we
haven't been favored with it yet!"
"The story opens," Elmer began, "on a cold and stormy night in October
in the year 1913. As the wind blew great gusts of rain down upon such
pedestrians as happened to be out of doors----"
"Aw, cut it out!" exclaimed Will. "Why don't you go on and tell the
story? We don't want any more of that Henry James business! You know he
always has a solitary horseman proceeding slowly on foot."
"Well, it was a dark night, and a stormy one!" declared Elmer. "If it
had been clear and bright, Stephen Carson, the Wall street banker,
wouldn't have received a dent in his cupola. In stepping down from his
automobile his foot slipped on the wet pavement, and he fell, striking
on the back of his head."
"What's that got to do with this mine mystery?" demanded George.
"It has a great deal to do with this mine mystery," Elmer answered.
"Stephen Carson arose from the ground, rubbed the back of his head with
his gloved hand, and continued on his way to a meeting of a board of
directors. He appeared to be perfectly sane and responsible for his acts
at the meeting of the board, and when he left in his machine there were
no indications that he had suffered more than a slight bruise from his
fall. He was not seen at home again for two weeks."
"Now you begin to get interesting!" declared Will.
"Where did he go?" asked Sandy.
"That is what his friends don't know," replied Elmer.
"But he must have been seen somewhere!" insisted Sandy.
"He was!" answered Elmer. "He was seen in the vicinity of this mine!"
"Wow, wow, wow!" exclaimed Sandy.
"What was he doing here?" asked Will.
"Wandering about the premises."
"Now I can tell you the rest," Will said with a chuckle.
"Go on, then," advised Elmer.
"From the meeting of the board of directors that night," Will went on,
whimsically, "this man Stephen Carson went directly to a safety deposit
vault where three or four hundred thousand dollars' in the way of cash
and jewelry, were hidden. He took the whole bundle and disappeared. Is
that anywhere near right, Elmer?"
"Go on!" Elmer replied.
"Then in two weeks time he comes back and says that he don't know where
he put the jewelry, but that he thinks he hid it in this mine. And, as
they can't find any place where he hocked the jewelry, or put it up to
carry out some gigantic Wall street plan, they are forced to believe
that he really did mislay the jewelry while temporarily out of his head.
Is that anywhere near right?"
"If you'll amend your report so as to show that he went to the Night and
Day bank and drew out something over two hundred thousand dollars which
he had on deposit there, and disappeared with the entire sum, you'll
come nearer to the truth."
Will gave a long whistle of amazement.
"Two hundred thousand dollars in real money!" exclaimed George.
"Yes, he took two hundred thousand dollars in real money away with him
that night," Elmer went on, "and when he returned to his home again, he
was penniless and in rags."
"Was he in his right mind?" asked Will.
"He seemed to be."
"Has he now recovered from the injury he received that night?"
"So the doctors say."
"Then why doesn't he tell what he did with the money?"
"That part of his life is blank. He was seen in the vicinity of this
mine, yet denies it. He was seen loitering in the woods not far away,
but insists that he never visited this mine except to attend meetings of
the board of directors."
"Now I've got you!" laughed Will. "His friends think he hid the money in
this mine and we've been sent here to find it!"
"That's the idea," agreed Elmer.
"And this bum detective is here for the same purpose!"
"Yes, though where he received his information is more than I know. Upon
his return to his home, Mr. Carson immediately made good the two hundred
thousand dollars taken from the Night and Day bank and employed
detectives to look up the missing coin.
"Is Ventner one of them?" asked Will.
"I don't think so," replied Elmer. "We were sent here to look through
the mine, with the understanding that you were to come on from Chicago
in a few days. Mr. Horton recommended you to Mr. Burlingame and so you
were employed."
"Then this detective has no right here at all?"
"None whatever, so far as I can make out."
"Then why not fire him?"
"Because he may accidentally run across the money some day."
"If he does, he'll get away with it!" declared George.
"No, he won't," answered Elmer, "He'll be watched every minute from now
on. You may be sure of that!"
"But you didn't seem to know what he was doing tonight," laughed Will.
"But I knew enough to come to the right place for the information I
desired," replied Elmer.
"Strange thing Tommy and Dick don't come!" Sandy exclaimed, stepping to
the door of the old tool house and listening intently. "They should have
been here a long time ago!"
"Perhaps they've butted into Ventner," suggested Jimmie.
"They wouldn't do that," Elmer replied. "Every blow he strikes with his
pick saves us the trouble of making one."
"You don't think he had any directions from anyone, do you?" asked Will.
"You don't, think he knows where to look for the money any more than you
do?"
"No, I think he just heard of the loss of the money and came down here
on his own account."
"Well, if he's using dynamite in the mine," Will continued, "he ought to
be turned out of it. If Mr. Carson really hid two hundred thousand
dollars in currency in here, it's in some little pocket easy to find if
we get into the right chamber. The use of dynamite might bury it twenty
feet deep under a load of shale that would never be removed!"
"That's a fact!" cried Elmer.
The boys now stepped to the door and listened again, attracted by the
sound of running feet.
"There's something doing!" exclaimed Sandy. "When Tommy comes home on a
run, there's always something going on."
Directly the boys came panting up, stopping in the doorway to look
behind them. They were both well winded.
"That bum detective back there," Tommy exclaimed, as soon as he could
catch his breath, "is putting in dynamite enough to blow up the whole
mine. He's attaching a long fuse, so he can get out before the explosion
comes. We cried to get down far enough to choke off the fuse, but
couldn't do it. In just about another minute, you'll hear something like
a Fourth of July celebration!"
CHAPTER XVII
THE SIGNS IN STONES
"We thought he'd send the shot off before we got up the ladders!"
exclaimed Dick. "We're expecting to hear the roar of it every minute
now!"
"Perhaps something went wrong," suggested Will.
"What part of the mine is he in?" asked Jimmie.
Tommy explained the location of the cross-cutting and Jimmie gave a
whistle of dismay. In a moment he asked:
"Was he cutting into one of the pillars?"
"Yes," was the answer; "he was getting ready to blow it down with
dynamite. It's a wonder we don't hear the explosion!"
"If the spot where he's working is the place I think it is," Jimmie
continued, "the gink stands a pretty good chance of finding something.
We've been searching in that chamber, and just before you boys showed up
tonight we thought we were on the right track. Whether the money is
there or not, it is a sure thing that the walls of the chamber have been
tampered with. We think, though, that the money is there!"
"Then we mustn't let Ventner get it!" exclaimed Will.
"It won't do him any good to get it after that stick of dynamite
explodes!" exclaimed Tommy. "It'll blow him to Kingdom Come."
"Well, why don't we go down and see about it?" asked Will.
"Not for me!" exclaimed Tommy.
"He may blow his own head off if he wants to," Dick cut in, "but he
can't blow off mine, not with my consent. I've got only one head!"
"I don't believe there's going to be any explosion at all!" exclaimed
Elmer. "He wouldn't be apt to lay a fuse that would burn fifteen or
twenty minutes, and you've certainly been that length of time coming up
here, to say nothing of the time we've been talking!"
"All right!" Tommy exclaimed. "Perhaps he was loading up that pillar
with dynamite just for the fun of it!"
"It would be a nice thing to have him blow that money out of the pillar
and get away with it, wouldn't it?" scoffed Will.
"Come on, then," shouted Tommy, "I can take you to the firing line in
about a minute. If you want to see an earthquake in a coal mine, just
come along with me! You'll see it, all right!"
The boys left the old tool house without spending any more time in
conversation, and hastened down the ladders to the lower level. On the
way down the last gangway they heard some one moving about in the
darkness, and then came a cry of warning.
"Stand clear! Stand clear!"
"That's Ventner's voice!" exclaimed Will.
"There's a blast going off in a minute!" the voice came again.
"Now we've gone and done it!" exclaimed Will. "After all the trouble
we've taken to make that fellow think we've left the country, we've let
him bump right into us. I wonder if he really has fired the fuse."
"Stand clear! Stand clear!" shouted the voice.
Almost before the words had died out, the explosion came, tearing more
than one pillar out of position and dropping a great mass of slate down
on the floor of the cross-cutting.
For a moment the gases which filled the chambers were overpowering. The
only wonder was that they were not ignited. The electric lights carried
by the boys shone dimly through the smoke of the confined place.
"There goes Ventner," whispered Will, pointing to a figure moving
swiftly through the half-light of the place.
"He's going to see what the shot brought down!" suggested Tommy.
The boys rushed forward in a little group. When they gathered at the
scene of the explosion, the detective was not there.
"If he got hold of the cash, he knew what to do with it all right!"
exclaimed Tommy. "He got away with it before we got a chance to see what
he had. Now we've got to catch him!"
"May as well look for a needle in a load of hay!" grumbled Sandy.
"Look here," Jimmie exclaimed. "There's a way to keep him shut up in the
mine if we do the right thing. This cross-cutting runs out to a gangway
on the north, and that, in turn, leads, of course, to the shaft. Now,
one of you boys duck out to the shaft and see that he doesn't get up.
You'll have to go some on the way there, because a man with two hundred
thousand dollars in his pocket will put up some running match!"
"I'm off!" shouted Tommy. "I know I can get to the shaft before he can!
He's too fat-bellied to run, anyway!"
Tommy started away at a swift pace, and the other boys closed in on the
gangway, Will alone stopping at the scene of the explosion.
"This gangway," Dick explained, "runs back into the mine for some
distance, but there are no cross passages. I guess the coal wasn't very
good here. At least, they never spread out the drive."
"Then we've got him bottled up unless he got out of the shaft!" declared
Sandy. "We'll soon know whether he got out or not!"
"I don't believe he would try to get out," suggested Elmer. "The chances
are that he'd make for the back of the mine, thinking to hide away with
the plunder, provided he had any plunder to hide away with."
"I'm afraid he found the hidden money," Will said, taking a scorched
ten-dollar bill from a pocket. "I found this back there, where the
pillar fell. I guess he found the cash all right!"
"And that's a nice thing, too!" exclaimed Sandy. "You boys kept saying
that Ventner was helping you find the coin. You were right about that,
for he did find the coin. And now the trick is to get it away from him!"
"I'd like to know whether Ventner got up the shaft or not," suggested
George, "and I believe I'll take a run up there and see.
"That's a good idea!" advised Will. "If he didn't get up the shaft he's
surely imprisoned in the gangway. He may be between this cross-cutting
and the shaft, or he may have gone further in!"
"It'll take a long time to find out about that," suggested Jimmie.
Directly Tommy and George were heard returning from the shaft. They came
through the gangway flashing their lights in every direction.
"He never went up the shaft!" Tommy exclaimed as they came near. "We've
got him canned in the mine all right. If he's got the money, we'll take
it away from him! He wouldn't know what to do with it, anyway!"
"First," suggested Will, "we'd better make sure that the fellow got the
money. The bank note I found may have never been in the possession of
Mr. Carson. And even if it was, it may be the only one to be blown out
of its hiding place by the explosion. It strikes me that we'd better
give the place a thorough search before we waste much time looking for
Ventner. If, as Tommy says, he never left the mine by way of the shaft,
we've got him blocked in, all right!"
The boys now began a careful examination of the cross-cutting where the
explosion had taken place. As has been stated, more than one pillar had
been blown out. There was a great heap of debris on the floor, and this
the boys attacked with a vim.
Tommy and George were now standing guard at the mouth of the
cross-cutting so that no one could pass down the gangway toward the
shaft.
"Suppose that fellow did get the money?" asked Sandy, as the boys
cleared away the heaps of slate, "what then?"
"Then we'll have to take it away from him!"
"We'll catch him first."
"We've got him blocked in, haven't we?" asked Sandy.
"Oh, we know that he can't get out," Dick cut in, "but we know, too,
that there are a lot of shallow benches along that gangway. We can't
walk in and pick him out in a minute. Besides," the boy continued, "when
we find him, we may find his pockets empty."
"That's just what we will do!" Elmer agreed. "He'll hide the money in
another place, and swear that he never found it!"
"I wish we'd kicked him out of the mine!" exclaimed Sandy.
The boys continued their search until daylight, and then, leaving Tommy
and George still on guard, they went up to the old tool house for
breakfast. The lads were by no means elated over what had taken place.
They believed that Ventner had succeeded in finding the money, and were
certain that, even if located in the mine, he would deny any knowledge
of it.
"I guess we got you boys into a mess by insisting on having the
detective roaming around," admitted Elmer, as the boys were eating a
hastily prepared breakfast. "I guess we should have listened to you in
regard to that. There is no knowing how much trouble we have made!"
"He may help us find the money after all!" laughed Will.
"Yes," cut in Sandy, "it may be easier to get it away from him than to
find the place where it was hidden."
"Oh, yes, if we could lay our hands on him and order him to give up two
hundred thousand dollars, and he would say: 'Yes, I've been waiting to
find the owner,' that would be all right, too! But the thing isn't
likely to turn out in that way! He'll hide the money, and swear he never
found it! Then, when everything quiets down, he'll sneak back and get
it!"
This from Jimmie, who seemed to take a rather gloomy view of the
situation. The boys remained at the old tool house only a short time.
Their minds were fixed so intently on the work in hand that they hardly
knew whether they had had any breakfast at all.
As they passed down the ladders to the lower level, they heard something
which resembled a pistol shot, and almost tumbled over each other
getting down into the gangway. Will and Elmer were first to reach the
cross-heading where the explosion of dynamite had taken place.
They called to Tommy and George, but received no answer. They walked for
some distance down the gangway without hearing any sound indicating the
presence of their companions, or of any one else.
"Now that's a funny thing!" exclaimed Will. "I don't see why those boys
should go rambling about the mine at a time like this just for the fun
of the thing!"
"They never did!" replied Elmer. "You remember the shot we heard!"
"It might not have been a shot!" suggested Will.
As the boy spoke he bent over and pointed to three stones lying on the
floor of the gangway.
"There!" he said. "The boys have left a record. They not only point out
the trail, but warn, us that there is danger in following it!"
CHAPTER XVIII
TWO HOLD-UP MEN
"That's Boy Scout talk all right!" exclaimed Elmer.
"Yes, the three stones, piled one on top of the other, mean that there
is danger in following the trail. I don't understand exactly what kind
of danger can be threatening us, and so the only thing we can do is to
go on and find out," Will said with a glance backward.
The other boys now came up and a short consultation was held. It was
decided to leave Sandy and Dick at the point where the explosion had
taken place, while Will, Elmer and Jimmie followed on down the gangway.
"Now whatever you do," warned Will as the two boys were left behind,
"don't leave this gangway for a minute. If Ventner isn't out of the mine
now, we don't want him to get out. He may have the money or he may not.
That is one of the things no fellow can find out at this time, but
whether he has or not, we want him to give an account of himself before
he leaves the Labyrinth. He's got several important questions to
answer."
The boys promised to watch the passage faithfully, and the others passed
on down the gangway, flashing their lights in every direction and making
no pretense of moving quietly.
"Look here," Jimmie said after they had proceeded some distance into the
mine and discovered nothing of importance, "I have in my possession a
great idea! Want to hear about it?"
"Sure!" laughed Will.
"We're making too much noise."
"Making too much noise in order to attract the attention of a couple of
lost youngsters?" asked Elmer.
"They're not lost!" insisted Jimmie. "They've been lured away or dragged
away! We don't know how many men were in the mine with Ventner!"
"Well, produce your idea!" Elmer exclaimed.
"Well, my notion is that I ought to go on ahead of you boys, walking as
quietly as possible and without a light. If there are people waiting to
snare us, they'll naturally think we've bunched our forces and are all
coming along together. Then, you see," he continued, "I'll be right in
among them before they suspect that we have a skirmish line out."
"That's an all right notion, kid!" answered Will.
"Then I'll be on my way," Jimmie replied. "And if I need help at any
time, I'll give the call of the pack!"
"But you mustn't do that unless you have to," Will cautioned, "because,
the minute the cry is heard, everybody within eighty rods would know
what's going on. Have you matches with you?"
The boy felt in the pockets of his coat and nodded.
"Well, then," he said, "if you want to signal, wet your hands and rub
the phosphorus off the matches. Turn your hands, palms in our direction,
so no one can see from the other side and wig-wag."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I've got this wig-wag system
down pat. I guess this Boy Scout training is pretty poor, ain't it, eh?
The darker it is, the better we can talk!"
Jimmie darted away, while Will and Elmer remained stationary for a short
time in order to give him an opportunity to get out of the range of
their lights. Directly they heard him whispering back and listened.
"There's another stone cairn here!" he said. "I guess I knocked it over,
for I can't tell exactly what it is. You can learn that when you come up
with your searchlights! I think there are three stones."
"All right!" Will whispered back.
When the boys came to the spot from which the voice had been heard they
found three stones lying side by side on the floor of the gangway. It
was plain that they had been placed one on top of the other, and so they
accepted them as another warning of danger.
"I wish we had some intimation of the kind of trouble we are likely to
get into," Elmer suggested, as they passed along. "I don't like this
idea of boring a hole in the darkness with a little bit of a light and
anticipating an attack at any minute."
"I don't like it a little bit myself," replied Will.
"A person so inclined might shoot us down without ever showing himself,"
declared Elmer. "In fact, the only protection we have lies in the fact
that Jimmie is on ahead, and would not be likely to pass any one lying
in wait for us. Bright little boy, that!"
"There he is now!" exclaimed Will. "He's using the phosphorus, all
right, and I can begin to understand what he's trying to say? There's a
'W', and an 'A', and an 'I', and a 'T'. That means that he wants us to
stay where we are. The system works fine, doesn't it?"
The question now was as to whether the lads should extinguish their
lights. That, of itself, they understood would be suspicious in case
they should be in sight of their enemies. It would simply proclaim their
knowledge of the danger they were in, whatever it was.
"I think we'd better keep the lights going until we hear something
more," Elmer said. "Jimmie will talk again in a minute."
The boys waited patiently for some moments, and then the wig-wag figures
came again. Will read slowly:
"There's a 'V', and an 'E', and an 'N', and a 'T', and an 'N', and an
'E', and an 'R'," he said. "Now the boy's starting it again. He says,
'Ventner is here.' Now wait a minute, there's more coming!"
"The next words are: 'With two others'."
"It's only a question of time when that detective will get next to the
wig-wag game," Elmer declared. "This gangway smells like a match factory
already. I wonder how far Jimmie is away from them."
Directly Jimmie began talking the wig-wag tongue again. This time he
said that Tommy and George were not in sight, and had evidently been
surprised and taken prisoners. He advised Will and Elmer to come on
softly with their lights out.
The boys did as requested, but they had advanced only a few paces in the
darkness when Canfield, accompanied by Sandy and Dick came running up,
showing both lack of breath and profound excitement.
"Boys," Canfield called. "Boys!"
"Will!" yelled Sandy.
"I guess they're going to bust up the whole combination!" declared Will
rather sourly. "I wish I had them by the neck!"
"They may have important news," suggested Elmer. "Anyway, we'll have to
turn on our lights and meet them. If we don't, they'll keep on yelling
all down the gangway!"
Canfield and the two boys came up as soon as Elmer showed a light, and
stood for a moment looking cautiously about.
"I don't think you boys ought to go any further into the mine!" Canfield
exclaimed, breathing heavily from the long chase down the passage. "I
have just received word that two of the most desperate hold-up men in
the country have taken refuge here. There's no knowing how they got over
to the mine, but it is a sure thing that they did get here, for a couple
of breaker boys saw them climbing into the breaker."
"What time was this?" asked Will.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Canfield. "The matter was reported to me
early this morning. I couldn't find you before, or you should have had
the news sooner. It isn't safe for you to go into the mine!"
"Your information," grinned Will, "comes a little bit late, but it's all
right, just the same! Ventner is in there, and there are two men with,
him. It's a mystery how they made their way in without being discovered,
but it seems that they did so."
"What are you going to do?" asked Canfield.
"We're going on into the mine."
"In the face of my warning?"
"It's just this way," answered Will. "We left two of the boys on guard
in this passage, not so very long ago, and they have disappeared. We
suspect that Ventner and the two men to whom you refer have good reason
to know something of their whereabouts."
"They won't injure the boys!" pleaded Canfield.
"We don't mean to give them a chance!" insisted Elmer. "We're going to
jerk those boys out so quick it'll make their heads swim!"
"But it's positively dangerous!" urged the caretaker.
"If there wasn't an element of danger in the situation, we wouldn't be
here!" replied Will. "I don't see as we need to run away from two
hold-up men, anyway," the boy went on. "Here are five boys and one full
grown man in the gangway. We ought to give a pretty good account of
ourselves, in case some one starts anything!"
"Where's the fifth boy?" asked Canfield. "It seems to me that you're
getting quite an accumulation of boys in here!"
"Two of the boys are Jimmie Maynard and Dick Thompson!" answered Will.
"You know you informed me quite positively not long ago that the two
lads were hundreds of miles from this place by this time."
"You might barricade the hold-up men and starve them out," suggested
Canfield, "that is, if you're sure they're in there!"
"We have just had a wireless from the interior," Elmer answered. "There
are three men in there, all right!"
"Well, it won't take any longer to starve three out than it would one!"
declared Canfield.
"Yes," Elmer cut in, "and about the first time the hold-up men got good
and hungry, they'd be sending out Tommy's ears or one of George's
fingers just as a warning to us not to meddle with their appetites."
Before long Jimmie began wig-wagging again, but before any words could
be formed the waiting boys heard a distant scuffle, a short, quick cry
of alarm, and then the phosphorus-covered palms disappeared from sight.
"They've got Jimmie!" Elmer said in a tone of dismay.
"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Sandy. "We've got to do
something right away, and that's no story out of the dream book!"
"I don't suppose it would be of any use to rush them," suggested Elmer.
"They'd mow us down like rats!" declared Dick.
"It strikes me," Sandy said, "that we'd ought to get back further and
keep out of sight until we can decide upon some definite plan of
action."
"I've got an idea wandering around in the back of my brain," Will said.
"If the situation is exactly as I think it is, we may be able to get the
best of those hold-up men after all."
CHAPTER XIX
THE MONEY IN SIGHT
"Not while they have possession of the boys," Canfield declared,
dolefully. "They'll murder those boys if we shut off their supplies!"
"Oh, I don't know about that!" suggested Dick. "We've been mixed up in a
great many awkward situations, but we've always managed to save our
necks. We'll get the boys out in some way!"
"Look here, Mr. Canfield," Will said, "how well do you know this mine?"
"Every inch, of it!" was the reply.
"Every inch of every level," asked Will.
"Yes, sir!" replied the caretaker, rather proudly. "I can go into any
part of it without a light!"
"Then look here, Dick," Will directed. "You chase back to the old tool
house and bring back a long rope. And when you return, stop at the
second level. Some of us will meet you there."
"I hope you don't expect to pull these boys up through fifty or a
hundred feet of shale?" asked the caretaker.
"I don't know whether my scheme will work or not," Will answered, "but
it's worth trying! We shall have to leave at least two here, well armed,
and take the others with us. You'll have to act as guide, Mr. Canfield,
and we'll meet Dick when he comes down to the second level with the
rope. As soon as we get the boys out of their trouble, we can leave the
three outlaws in full possession of the mine. If we watch the shaft at
the old tool house, they can never get out without our knowing it!"
"I don't understand what you have in mind," faltered Canfield.
Leaving Sandy and Elmer in the gangway from which the wig-wag signals
had been shown, the others hastened up the ladder to the second level.
Then Dick ran away to bring the rope, while Will questioned the
caretaker regarding the fall between the two levels.
"You remember the old shaft, cut through years ago, and doubtless
deserted when the vein ran out, which at one time connected the two
levels, don't you?" asked the boy of the caretaker.
"There is such a place," replied the caretaker.
"Can you find it?"
"Of course I can."
"Does the fall open into the system of chambers in the center or to the
north? You understand what I mean! Is it possible to enter any of the
benches or chambers connecting with the north gangway on the lower level
by means of this deserted shaft?"
"I am not quite certain about that," replied Canfield, "but my idea is
that the north benches and chambers can be reached by means of that
opening. I am glad you thought of that," he went on.
Dick now returned with the rope, and the three proceeded down the second
level until they came to a confusion of passages and benches which would
certainly have bewildered any one not familiar with the mine.
"Unless I am very much mistaken," Canfield went on, "this passage, the
one straight ahead, runs almost directly over Tunnel Six. If I am right
in this, the deserted shaft is here."
"And Tunnel Six is the haunted corridor, isn't it?" asked Dick.
"That's where the lights have been seen!" replied the caretaker.
"You never believed in the ghost stories told about Tunnel Six?" asked
Will. "I should think you'd begin to see now that the alleged ghosts
were pretty material things."
"Well, I don't know about the ghosts," replied the caretaker, "but I
really was getting a little bit nervous when you boys arrived. You
know," he continued, "that we all feel a little shivery when we butt
into anything which we can't understand."
"Well, suppose you follow this passage to the end and see if you
discover anything like the deserted shaft," suggested Dick.
"You're not going to venture into the lower level again, are you?" asked
Canfield. "I don't blame you boys for wanting to rescue your companions,
but, at the same time, I don't want to see you throw your lives away.
Those are desperate men in Tunnel Six!"
"If my idea is worth anything at all," replied Will, "we'll get the boys
out without ever letting the hold-up men know that we are within a mile
of them. You know we had very little difficulty in getting out of the
chamber where we left the boat."
"Trust you boys for inventing ways of doing things!" exclaimed Canfield.
"Of course," Will said hesitatingly after a time, "it may be that this
deserted shaft doesn't connect with Tunnel Six, but even if it doesn't,
we'll find some way of getting to our friends from the new position. We
can only try, anyway!"
"I'm pretty certain that it connects with Tunnel Six," replied the
caretaker. "But you mustn't show your light when you approach the old
shaft," he went on, "because if it does connect with the chamber we
seek, and the chamber in turn connects with the north passage, the
robbers will see what we're doing."
"That's a valuable suggestion!" replied Will.
"I'll go on ahead," Canfield continued, "and find the old shaft. Then
you can follow on with the rope, and one of you boys can drop down and
see what can be discovered."
"It's dollars to apples," chuckled Dick, as the boys trailed along after
the caretaker, "that we find the three kids trussed up like a lot of
hens ready for the market in the chamber where you came so near getting
wet. I hope we do, at any rate!"
"There's one thing we overlooked," Will said as Canfield whispered to
them that he had found the deserted shaft, "and that is this: We should
have directed the boys in the gangway to have attracted the attention of
the outlaws by a little pistol practice while we are communicating with
our friends. They may be all packed away in the chamber together."
"Yes, we should have attended to that," replied Dick. "Perhaps I'd
better go back now and tell them to get busy with their automatics."
"We may as well investigate the situation here first," the other
answered.
The boys heard the caretaker creeping about in the darkness, and
presently a piece of shale or coal was heard rattling down the old
shaft.
"We'll have to get that blundering caretaker away from there," whispered
Will. "If we don't, he'll notify the hold-up men that we're getting
ready to do something! I've heard that about three-fourths of the people
in the world object to doing anything unless they can take a brass band
along, and I guess it's true."
"Say," Canfield whispered, calling back to the lads, "when that stone
dropped down, I heard something that sounded like a paddle slapping down
on the water. That room can't be wet yet, can it?"
"The Beaver call!" whispered Will.
"Right you are!" replied Dick. "The boys are there, all right!"
"Now the next thing to do is to find out if those highwaymen are
watching them," declared Will.
"I'll tell you that in a minute," Dick whispered.
As the boy spoke, he passed one end of the rope to Canfield.
"Hang on to it, whatever takes place!" he whispered, "and I'll drop down
and see what's going on."
"You must be very careful," warned Canfield.
"That's all right," answered Dick, "but we can't stand here all day
figuring out precautions. We've got to know right off whether there's
anyone in that chamber watching the boys!"
"What a joke it would be to put on a ghost in Tunnel Six!" laughed Will,
in a decidedly cheerful frame of mind, now that rescue seemed so near.
"Don't try any foolishness!" advised Canfield. "Let's rescue the boys if
possible and make our way out of this horrible place."
Will crawled to the edge of the shaft with Dick and whispered as he
lowered him into the dark opening below:
"Remember," he said, "that Ventner may have discovered the money. If so,
we must secure it before we leave the place! It will be just like him to
stow the bank notes away in some chamber like the one you are about to
enter. When you strike bottom, if there is no one in sight except the
boys, turn on your searchlight and take a good look over the interior of
the chamber.
"We were in there not so very long ago, but at that time we weren't
thinking of making a search there for hidden money. You'll have to use
your own judgment about turning on the light, of course. The outlaws may
be out in the gangway, some distance from the entrance to the chamber,
or they may be within six feet of where the boys are held as prisoners."
"Tommy ought to be able to tell me the minute I strike the heap of shale
whether the outlaws are close by or not!" Dick suggested.
"Of course!" answered Will, "if he knows. If the men are not in sight,
and he doesn't know where they are, you'll simply have to take chances.
If you get caught in there, you'll have to shoot, and shoot quick!"
Dick, dropped down into the old shaft and directly the anxious watchers
above heard the rattle of shale as it dropped from the pyramid under the
opening. Will, still clinging to the rope, lay on his stomach and peered
downward, watching with all anxiety for some show of light, or some
sound which might indicate the situation below.
Directly Will felt a soft, steady pull at the rope, and knew that one of
the boys was ready to be assisted to the top.
Dick came up first, chuckling as he landed on the edge of the break in
the rock, and was immediately followed by Jimmie.
"Where's Tommy and George?" asked Will in a whisper.
"They're down there looking for the money!"
"Looking for the money in the darkness?"
"Sure!" was the reply. "You see," he went on, "those ginks tied us up
good and tight, and then threw the money around promiscuous like!"
"So the money is there?" asked Will.
The news seemed too good to be true!
"It was there when we were first thrown into the chamber," replied
Jimmie, "but I have an idea that Ventner sneaked in and removed it so as
to prevent his mates getting any share."
A light flashed out from below, followed immediately by a pistol shot!
CHAPTER XX
SANDY IS DISCHARGED
Elmer and Sandy, guarding the gangway variously called the North section
and Tunnel Six, presently heard voices coming from the direction of the
shaft, and the latter moved back a few paces in order to inspect the
new-comers. In a moment he saw three rather pompous looking men
approaching him, their footsteps being directed by a man clothed as a
miner.
"Here, boy!" shouted one of the pompous men. "Can you tell me where
Canfield, the caretaker of this mine, may be found?"
"He's up on the next level," replied Sandy.
"I was told he was down here," growled the speaker, who was very short
and fat, and very much out of breath.
"He was here a little while ago," answered Sandy.
"What's the meaning of this show of firearms?" demanded the fat man,
after glancing disdainfully at the automatic in the boy's hand.
"We've got three robbers cooped up in the mine," replied Sandy.
"That's the old, old story!" exclaimed the fat man. "I don't know that I
ever knew of a mine that wasn't haunted, either by ghosts or robbers!
Mysteries seem to breed in coal mines!"
Sandy walked back to the place where he had left Elmer, and the three
men and their guide followed him. When Elmer caught a view of the fat
man's face and figure, he gave a sharp pull at Sandy's sleeve.
"That's Stephen Carson!" he said. "I guess I'd better keep out of sight,
because I don't care about getting into an argument with him. He's the
most contrary person I ever saw in my life, and never fails to get up an
argument about something or other with yours truly."
"You seem to know him pretty well," whispered Sandy.
"I ought to," returned Elmer, "he's my Uncle! The two tall men in the
party are my father and the cashier of the Night and Day bank. I'll take
a sneak, and that will shorten the session."
Accordingly, Elmer strolled along the gangway and came to a halt some
distance from where the three men had drawn up.
"My boy," Carson went on, looking condescendingly at the youth, "will
you kindly run up to the second level and tell Mr. Canfield that his
presence is required by the president of the mining company?"
"I'm not allowed to leave this place, sir," replied Sandy, taking
offense at the man's air of proprietorship.
"All persons in and about this mine," Carson almost shouted, "are
subject to my orders. Run along now, you foolish boy, find don't make
any further trouble for yourself!"
The man's manner was so unnecessarily dictatorial and offensive that
Sandy found it impossible to retain his temper. He was not naturally a
"fresh" youngster, but now he had passed the limit of endurance.
"Aw, go chase yourself!" he said.
"You're discharged!" shouted Carson.
"You didn't hire me!" retorted Sandy. "You haven't got any right to
discharge me! I'm going to stay here until I get ready to leave!"
"If you don't get out of the mine immediately, I'll have you thrown
out!" shouted Carson. "I never saw such impudence!"
"If I do get out," replied Sandy with a grin, "you'll wish I hadn't!"
Carson turned to Elmer's father and the bank cashier, and the three
consulted together for a short time. Then Elmer's father came closer to
where Sandy was standing.
"Why do you say that?" he asked. "Why do you think we will wish you had
remained in case you are sent out of the mine?"
"Because I was left here to prevent robbers getting out of the gangway.
They're further in, and have captured three of my chums."
"All nonsense!" shouted Mr. Carson breaking into the conversation
impatiently. "These breaker boys never tell the truth!"
"Are you Mr. Buck?" asked Sandy, speaking in an undertone to Elmer's
father. "Because if you are, you'll find Elmer just a short distance
ahead. He's on guard, too. He didn't want his uncle to recognize him,
because he says he's always getting up an argument with him."
"I'm glad to know that Elmer is attending to his duty," Mr. Buck
answered. "Somehow," he continued with a smile, "Stephen Carson always
rubs Elmer the wrong way of the grain."
"What's he butting in here for?" asked Sandy, while the cashier of the
Night and Day bank and the miner stood by waiting for the peace
negotiations to conclude.
"Why, he came in to get his two hundred thousand dollars!" replied Mr.
Buck. "He thinks he knows How right where he left it."
"Does he often get foolish in the head like that?" asked Sandy with a
grin. "If he does, he ought to hire a couple of detectives to keep track
of him when he goes wandering out in the night!"
"Oh, Stephen is usually a pretty level-headed sort of a fellow!" replied
Mr. Buck. "He is out of humor just now because he has always denied that
he visited the mine during his two weeks of absence. He is one of the
men who dislike very much to be caught in an error of any kind."
"So he knows where the money is?" asked Sandy.
"He says he can find it if he can secure the services of Canfield, the
caretaker. He remembers now of getting in the mine, and of hearing
footsteps in the darkness. His impression at that time was that robbers
had followed him in, so he unloaded the banknotes in a small chamber
which he is now able to describe accurately but which he cannot, of
course, find."
"Was the money hidden on this level?" asked Sandy.
"Yes, on this level."
"In this gangway?"
"He thinks it was hidden here."
"Right about here, or further on?"
"Why," was the answer, "he seems to remember something about Tunnel Six.
He thinks he hid the money there! As soon as he finds Canfield, the
caretaker will probably be able to tell him exactly how Tunnel Six
looks."
"It looks all in a mess right now! I can tell you that," grinned Sandy.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean that there's been doings here!" replied Sandy.
"Are there really robbers in there?"
"Sure, there are robbers in there!"
"Then perhaps we'd better bring in a squad of deputies."
"If you'll just let us boys alone," Sandy said, "we'll bring the money
out if it's anywhere in the mine, but if this man Carson goes to butting
in at this time, he'll have to dig out his own money. He won't believe
there's any robbers in there, and he wants to fire me out of the mine,
so I guess we'd better let him go his own gait a little while."
"He'll do that anyhow no matter what you say!" replied Mr. Buck.
"Look here!" shouted Carson, starting forward, with his stomach out and
his fat shoulders thrown back, "what's all this conversation about? Why
don't some one go up and get Canfield, and why isn't that young rowdy
thrown out of the mine? I won't have him in here!"
"Say," Sandy broke in, "Mr. Buck says that you're looking for Tunnel
Six. If you are, I can show you right where it is!"
"Do so, then!" shouted Carson.
"Go straight ahead," Sandy directed, "and when the robbers begin to
shoot, you command them to throw down their weapons in the name of the
law. They'll probably do it, all right, if you tell them to, but you'll
be lucky if they don't throw them down your throat!"
"Do you mean to tell me," screamed Carson, "that there are actually
robbers here, and that they have taken possession of Tunnel Six?"
"That's the idea," replied Sandy.
"Why, that's where I put my----"
"That's where you put your money, is it?" Sandy went on.
"I never saw such impudence!" reared Carson.
"Well, go on and get your money!" advised Sandy. "Just go straight down
the gangway until you come to a face of rock and then switch off to the
left, and you'll find yourself in a chamber used at present by robbers
and hold-up men as a winter resort."
"Oh you can't frighten me!" declared Carson. "I believe that you're here
in quest of the money yourself!"
"That's right!" admitted Sandy. "Go on in, now, and tell the robbers to
give up your hoarded gold! Just butt in, and tell 'em what you want them
to do! They'll probably do just as you tell them to!"
"I never saw such impudence in my life!" roared Carson, wiping his
perspiring forehead with a large red silk handkerchief.
"I don't see where the impudence comes in!" replied Sandy. "You said you
wanted to find Tunnel Six in order that you might locate your money. I'm
telling you where it is, and what to do to get it!"
"Old Stephen never took a bluff in his life!" chuckled Mr. Buck, "Now
see if he doesn't go stalking down that passage and declaring himself in
the name of the law!"
The banker did exactly what Mr. Buck had predicted. He went storming
down the passage, giving notice to all intruders to walk out of his mine
in a peaceable manner. Mr. Buck followed along until he came to where
Elmer was standing with his back against the wall, and then the two
paused and entered into conversation. The cashier of the Night and Day
bank and the miner started back toward the shaft.
"What's the matter?" shouted Sandy. "Why don't you stay and see the fun?
There'll be shooting here directly!"
The miner and the cashier now took to their heels and were soon out of
sight. Every moment the boy expected to see a flash of fire in the
gangway. Carson was now very near to Tunnel Six, and it seemed certain
that the outlaws must soon open fire on him.
"Come back, Stephen!" shouted Mr. Buck. "Don't make a fool of yourself!"
"This is all pure bluff!" shouted Carson. "There are no robbers here at
all. This is a scheme to keep me out of Tunnel Six, where I believe my
money to be hidden!"
They saw Carson halt in his rather clumsy passage down the gangway, and
draw an automatic revolver from his pocket.
There was a quick shot and the banker rushed ahead!
CHAPTER XXI
"I TOLD YOU SO!"
Directly Elmer, Sandy and Mr. Buck heard the banker shouting at the top
of his lungs and dashed on toward the mysterious tunnel.
"He'll get his head shot off in there!" exclaimed Sandy.
"I don't care if he does!" declared Elmer.
"Your uncle isn't such a bad old fellow, after all," Mr. Buck exclaimed.
"He has plenty of courage, at any rate!"
"But I don't understand why they don't open fire on him!" exclaimed
Sandy. "The robbers certainly were in there not very long ago. We heard
the scuffle when they geezled Jimmie."
"Who fired that shot?" asked Mr. Buck.
"Uncle Stephen did," replied Elmer. "I saw the flash spring out from the
spot where he stood!"
"Well, what do you know about that?" exclaimed Sandy. "The old chap is
actually making his bluff good! He's getting into Tunnel Six single
handed and alone! I guess we'll have to advertise for those three
outlaws if we find 'em in here! He's a nervy old fellow, isn't he?"
The three now followed fast on the heels of the banker, and soon came to
where he stood swinging his searchlight at the end of a short drift
which ended, after sliding under a dip, in a chamber which at first
glance seemed to be piled high with a mass of shale.
While the three looked on, Carson dropped on his knees beside a crevice
in the wall and began an eager exploration of the opening.
Directly he sprang to his feet with rage and disappointment showing on
every feature of his face. He raved about the cluttered chamber for a
moment, almost dancing up and down in his anger and chagrin, and then
sat limply down on the pile of shale.
"It's gone!" he said. "The money's gone!"
"So it wasn't hidden back there in that cross-cutting at all?" asked
Sandy. "We thought sure we had a cinch on the coin several hours ago!"
"It was hidden here in this chamber!" declared Carson wearily. "The
minute I entered the place I remembered where I had hidden it. And now
it's gone! I've had all my trouble for nothing."
As he ceased speaking, he glanced suspiciously at Sandy. And Sandy, in
turn, made a most provoking face.
"I believe you know something about my money!" Carson said.
"Sure I do!" replied Sandy.
"Then where is it?"
"The robbers got it!"
"That's a nice story to tell," howled Carson. "If you think I'm going to
be defrauded out of my money in this way, you're very much mistaken!"
Without paying any further attention to the threats of the banker, Sandy
stepped over to Elmer's side and pointed up the deserted shaft.
"There's where the robbers went," he said, "and they doubtless took
Carson's money with them. I don't understand why Will didn't stop them."
"Will and George probably released their friends and went away,"
complained Elmer. "I don't think they showed very good judgment in doing
that, either. The result is that the money has now disappeared entirely.
A short time ago, Uncle might have reclaimed it."
"We don't know whether the money has gone beyond recall or not," replied
Sandy. "I don't believe Will and George ever left the old shaft
unguarded. They are still somewhere in this vicinity!"
Carson now blustered up to Sandy and pointed an accusing finger into the
lad's face. Sandy regarded him with indifference.
"Now that your story of the robbers has been disproved," Carson shouted,
"you may as well tell me who took my money. If I had not the courage to
make this investigation in person, that cheap story of the robbers would
have held good for all time!"
"That's a horse on me, all right!" admitted Sandy. "I don't know where
the robbers are, unless they went up through that old shaft, and it
doesn't seem as if the boys would permit that!"
"Too thin! Entirely too thin!" declared Carson. "A moment ago you tried
to tell me that the money wasn't hidden near Tunnel Six at all, but was
hidden back there near the cross-cutting."
"We had good reason to believe it was hidden there!" replied Sandy. "We
found a burned ten-dollar banknote there just after a dynamite explosion
had taken place."
"That would naturally lead to the supposition that the money had been
hidden there!" Mr. Buck exclaimed.
"Come to think of it," Sandy went on, "I believe that was one of
Ventner's tricks. I believe he blew down those pillars and burned the
banknote for the express purpose of making us search two or three weeks
in the wrong place. I guess we have under-estimated that fellow's
ability. He's a keener man than I supposed!"
"I don't quite see the point to that," Elmer suggested. "When you say
that Ventner probably caused you to dig in the wrong place, you admit
that he must have known something about the right place. Now, how could
he have known anything about where to look for that money?"
"I don't know," replied Sandy. "But when you say that he might have
known exactly where to look, you set him down as a fool, because he has
been searching a long time and never came upon it until today."
"I think I can understand that," Mr. Buck said. "This man you speak of
probably knew where to find the money provided he could discover the
right drift, bench, chamber or tunnel. Like Mr. Carson, here, he could
doubtless go straight to the cache if directed into the right
apartment."
While the four stood together at the bottom of the chamber, their
searchlights making the place as light as day, an exclamation came from
the shaft above, followed by two pistol shots.
Carson dropped to his knees and began twisting at his automatic, which
had in some way become entangled in the lining of his pocket.
"There are your robbers!" he shouted. "Put out your lights!"
"Don't you do anything of the kind!" argued Sandy. "Get out of range of
the old shaft and keep your lights burning so you can shoot any one who
drops down! I guess we have them hemmed in!"
"It's a scheme to get away with my money!" shouted Carson.
"I wish you had your old money chucked down your throat!" exclaimed
Sandy. "I'm getting sick of the sound of the word!"
All members of the party now drew back toward the dip, where they were
entirely concealed from any one in the old shaft.
Directly there was a rattling of shale and slate, and then the lights
showed the figure of Tommy sitting astride the peak of the pyramid.
"What you fellows trying to do down there?" he asked.
"We're looking for Carson's money?" replied Sandy.
"Did you get it?" the boy demanded.
"Not yet!"
"That's the boy that's got my money!" shouted the banker.
"Money's a good thing to have!" grinned Tommy.
"What have you done with the highwaymen?" asked Sandy.
"Why continue this senseless talk about highwaymen?" demanded Carson,
"when you know just as well as I do that there are no robbers here other
than yourselves! Mr. Buck," he added, turning to Elmer's father, "I call
upon you to assist me in restraining these robbers until the proper
officers can be summoned."
"Where did that fat man come from?" asked Tommy.
"You impertinent rascal!" shouted Carson.
"Sure!" answered Tommy. "But where did you say you came from?"
"I'm president of this mining company!" screamed Carson, "and I'll have
you all in jail if you don't produce my money!"
"Is this the gentleman who went batty and lost two hundred thousand
dollars?" asked Tommy, sliding down from the slate pyramid and standing
beside Sandy.
"That is believed to be the man!" laughed Sandy.
"Believed to be!" roared Carson.
"Does he know where he left the money?" asked Tommy.
"Sure I know where I left my money, you young jackanapes!" declared
Carson. "I pointed out the exact hiding place only a few moments ago!"
"You found it empty?"
"Yes, I found it empty," roared Carson.
"Then," Tommy suggested, "we've all got to get busy."
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Carson.
Before Tommy could reply, Will came sliding down the rope and landed
within a few feet of where the little group stood.
"Look here, Will," Tommy said, "are you sure we made a good search of
those three ginks? They've got the money all right!"
"How do you know they did?" demanded Will.
"That fat man over there who looks as if he was about to bust," Tommy
grinned, "is Mr. Carson, the man who hid the money and couldn't find it
again. He's just been looking in the place where he concealed it, and it
isn't there! We've got to get busy!"
"I don't understand this at all," Mr. Buck interrupted.
"It's just this way," Will said, facing the speaker "we caught the three
men who were wandering about in the mine. We rescued our chums first,
and then when the outlaws heard your party advancing they scrambled up
the old shaft and took to their heels, supposing, of course, that we had
lost no time in getting out of the mine."
"And you geezled them all?" asked Sandy.
"The whole three!" replied Will. "All we had to do was to stretch a rope
across a passage, trip them up, and do a little winding around their
great big forms before they could get their breath. They're all tied up
good and tight now."
"And you searched them for the money and didn't find it?" shouted
Carson.
"And we searched them for the money and didn't find it!" repeated Will.
"I don't believe it!" shouted Carson. "You'll be telling me in a moment,
when I ask you to produce your robbers, that they have broken their
bonds and escaped!"
At that moment, George's voice was heard calling down the shaft:
"Break for the main shaft!" they heard him saying. "Head those fellows
off! They cut their ropes and got away!"
"I told you so!" thundered Carson.
CHAPTER XXII
CONCLUSION
"Bright boys up there!" exclaimed Will, as the unwelcome news of the
escape of the robbers came down the old shaft.
"Me for the elevator!" shouted Tommy.
All four boys, Will, Elmer, Tommy and Sandy, started in a mad race down
the gangway. As they carried their searchlights with them, and as Mr.
Carson and Mr. Buck moved at a slower pace, the latter gentlemen were
soon feeling their way through a dark tunnel.
"We've just got to head 'em off!" grunted Tommy, as the boys passed
along at a pace calculated to break the long distance running records.
"I don't believe they'll make for the main shaft anyway," Sandy panted.
"I don't believe they will, either," Will declared, "but if we get to
the lift first, we'll be dead sure they don't get out!"
Will was in advance as they swung into the lighted space about the
shaft. The first thing he observed was that one of the cages was just
starting upward. He sprang to the push button and almost instantly the
cage dropped back to the third level again. The power was on in honor of
the visit of the president of the company.
"Pile in, boys!" he shouted. "We'll stop at the second level!"
The man at the top responded nobly to the quick signals given to start
and stop, and in a very short space of time the elevator stood at the
second level. The bar was down, but Will threw it aside and stepped out
into the passage. There he saw the bank cashier and the miner standing
cowering against the wall only a few feet from the shaft.
"What are you doing here?" asked Will.
"We started to the top," the miner replied, "but stopped here because we
thought there might be need of our assistance on this level."
"Why on this level?" asked Will, observing that the miner was pretty
thoroughly frightened. "I haven't heard of any disturbance here!"
"But there has been a disturbance here!" insisted the cashier. "We heard
scuffling out there in the darkness, but as we had no lights, we could
not investigate. My friend, the miner, had a light on the lower level,
but he lost it as we made our way out to the shaft."
"Has any one passed up the shaft?" asked Will.
The miner shook his head.
"Then we're in time all right!" cried Will exultantly. "We have the
outlaws headed off!"
The heavy voices of the two men who had been left on the lower level now
came rumbling up the shaft.
"What do you mean by leaving us in this plight?" demanded Carson. "Lower
the cage instantly, and take us to the top!"
"Stay down there and look after your money!" cried Sandy, mockingly.
"I think I know where my money is!" shouted Carson.
"I wish I knew!" returned Sandy.
In the moment of silence which followed the boys heard the call of the
Beaver Patrol ringing down the second level.
"George seems to be alive anyway!" laughed Tommy.
A moment later a snarling sound which seemed to emanate from a whole
pack of Wolves reached the ears of the boys.
"Why didn't you tell me there were wild animals in the mine?" shouted
the cashier. "Let me into that cage immediately!"
"Don't be in a hurry," advised Tommy. "All the Wolves and Beavers you'll
find in here won't do you any harm!"
While Carson and Elmer's father continued to call from below, and while
the Boy Scout challenges rang in the second level, two pistol shots were
heard not far away from the shaft.
The cashier and the miner both broke for the cage, but were turned back
at the point of Sandy's automatic revolver.
"You stopped here because you thought you might be of some assistance,
you know," the boy said. "Now you just remain here long enough to help
out."
"But there are people being murdered in there!" cried the cashier.
Two more shots came from the gangway and then the stout figure of the
detective came staggering into the circle of light around the shaft. He
had evidently been wounded seriously, for he fell as he drew near to
where the boys were standing and raised his eyes in a piteous appeal for
help. Will stooped over and felt of his pulse.
"You're about done for!" the boy said in a husky tone. "Who did it?"
"Those two hold-up men," was the faint reply.
"Where are they now?" asked Will.
"I fired back," replied the detective with a grim smile, "and I guess
they're lying on the floor of the passage!"
Will bent closer over the wounded detective while Tommy and Sandy
started down the gangway on a run, closely followed by Elmer.
"Why did they shoot you?" asked Will.
"I found the money," Ventner replied, "and hid it in a crevice in the
wall, and they found it. When we managed to escape by cutting the ropes
I saw them take the money and disappear in the darkness. I followed on
and accused them of the act and they shot me! Then I shot back, and I
guess it's a pretty bad mess, when you take it altogether!"
"Where is the money?" asked Will.
"They have it in their possession," was the reply, "if they haven't
hidden it again."
Before the wounded detective could continue, George, Jimmie, Dick,
Canfield, Sandy and Tommy came running out of the gangway.
"Where's Elmer?" asked Will.
"We left him back there talking with one of the hold-up men," replied
George. "They're both badly hurt, and won't last long!"
"I'm not sorry!" moaned Ventner.
A moment later, Elmer came out of the passage with a bill-book of good
size in his hand. He lifted the book gaily as he entered the
illumination.
"I'll bet he's got the money!" exclaimed Tommy.
"Sure he has!" replied Will, and Elmer nodded.
The voices of Carson and Buck again came roaring up from below.
"Why don't you lower the cage?" Carson shouted. "I'm going to have every
one of you arrested as soon as I can find an officer! You can't work any
of your gold brick schemes on me!"
"We may as well drop down and take them aboard," Will laughed.
Carson was swelling with rage when he stepped onto the platform of the
list. He shook his fist fiercely under Will's nose, and announced that
he would have him wearing handcuffs before night.
"How much reward was offered for the return of that two hundred thousand
dollars?" asked the boy, without paying any attention to the angry
demonstrations of the banker.
"Twenty thousand dollars!" replied Carson. "But you'll never get a cent
of it. I hired a party of Boy Scouts to come here from Chicago and look
into the case, but they never came near me."
"When you write to Chicago again," Will replied, with a smile as the
elevator stopped at the second level, "just tell Mr. Horton that the
Beaver's didn't succeed in getting the money, but that the Wolves did.
Elmer has the money in his possession right this minute!"
"Impossible!" shouted Carson.
"Hand him the money, Elmer," requested Will.
Carson snatched the bill book as it was held out to him and began
looking through the ten-thousand-dollar banknotes which it contained.
"The next time you get drunk and fall out of your machine, don't accuse
every one you meet of robbing you!" Sandy cut in.
"Are you the boys who came on from Chicago?" demanded Carson.
"Sure!" replied Will.
"I guess I'm an old fool!" admitted Carson. "Here I've been roaming
around about half a day accusing you boys of stealing my money, when all
the time you were planning on returning it to me!"
"Do we get the reward now?" asked Will.
"Twenty thousand and expenses!" replied Carson. "I'll settle with Elmer
and his chums later on!"
"It's a shame to take the money!" declared Sandy, but Will gave him a
sharp punch in the back and he cut off any further remarks which he
might have had in his mind.
The story ends here because the adventure ended with the finding of the
money. The old tool house was deserted that night. The two hold-up men
and the detective recovered after a long illness in a Pittsburgh
hospital. The detective was permitted to go his way after promising to
keep out of crooked detective deals in the future. He never told how or
where he received his information about the lost money. The hold-up men
were given long sentences in prison.
A few weeks later, when the mining company resumed operations at the
Labyrinth, Tunnel Six was walled up. Mr. Carson, the president, declared
that it made what few hairs he had left stand on end to think of the
experiences he had endured there!
However, there are still stories about the breaker, that on dark nights,
when the wind blows, and the rain falls in great sheets, there are
mysterious lights floating about Tunnel Six.
Jimmie and Dick often tell exactly how these lights were made, and how
they enjoyed themselves living down in the bowels of the earth, but the
superstitious miners still claim that the boys were not responsible for
all the lights which burned there!
Dick and Jimmie also have their joke with the Beaver Patrol boys
whenever they meet, declaring that if they had not finally relented and
dropped the string the boys had carried into the mine for their own
protection, they would still be wandering around in the Labyrinth Mine.
"And now," Will said as they settled down in their old room on
Washington boulevard, "we're going to be good boys from this time on and
remain in Chicago and stay at home nights!"
However, in three days, the boys were preparing for another bit of
adventure, the details of which will be found in the next volume of this
series entitled:
"Boy Scouts in Alaska; or, The Camp on the Glacier."
The End.
[Frontispiece]
BOY SCOUTS IN ALASKA
Or, The Camp on the Glacier
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I--UNDER SEALED ORDERS 7
II--THE PRINT OF A THUMB 14
III--A MESSAGE IN CODE 21
IV--THE LOST PLANS 28
V--FISHING IN ALASKA 35
VI--A MISSING BOY 42
VII--A LOST "BULLDOG" 49
VIII--ON THE GULF OF ALASKA 56
IX--THE CLUES WILL FOUND 63
X--IN LUCK AT LAST 70
XI--MAKING NEW PLANS 76
XII--ANOTHER LOST "BULLDOG" 83
XIII--THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL 89
XIV--THE LAD WITH THE "DRAG" 94
XV--A BREAK IN THE GLACIER 100
XVI--GEORGE AND SANDY CAUGHT 107
XVII--THE MORSE CODE 114
XVIII--THE ROCKS TUMBLE DOWN 122
XIX--VICTIMS OF THE QUAKE 130
XX--DOWN IN THE CHASM 137
XXI--EXPLAINING CORDOVA INCIDENTS 142
XXII--THE PLANS AT LAST 148
CHAPTER I
UNDER SEALED ORDERS
An August night in Alaska.
To the North, the tangle of the Chugach Mountains; to the East, Bering
Glacier; to the South, the purple waters of the Gulf of Alaska; to the
West, Prince William Sound. All around, the grandeur of a world in the
making--high mountains, rugged summits, deep cut valleys, creeping
glaciers.
In a log cabin standing in the center of a small forested moraine four
boys of about seventeen were grouped together. The one door and the two
windows of the structure were covered with mosquito wire. The hum of
insect life came into the room with the monotony of the murmur of the
sea. Although it was after ten o'clock in the evening, the sun still
rode high above the horizon.
A few hundred feet from the outer edge of the ice-cliff, the forested
moraine became a "dead" glacier. When a glacier advances no longer, but
draws back year by year, it is said to be "dead." The live glacier is
simply a river of ice pouring down precipices and into gorges and
fiords.
As a matter of fact, the log cabin was built upon a glacier, for under
the luxuriant summer undergrowth, under the flowers, and under the
bright green of the hemlocks, lay a great bed of ice which, however, was
slowly receding. In times gone by the current of ice had flowed into the
Gulf of Alaska, but now, because of drainage in another direction, the
glacial ice swept off to the west, in the direction of Copper river.
The four boys in the cabin had just finished supper, the cooking having
been done over a gasoline "plate," and they were now discussing the
advisability of spending the remaining hour of daylight in the
investigation of the strange, wild land in which they now found
themselves.
Two days before they had landed at Katalla, and had spent the
intervening time in transferring their supplies to the log house on the
glacier. They had traveled northward by the inland route, and landed in
the vicinity of Controller bay, bringing with them provisions sufficient
for a long stay in the wonderful North.
Those who have read the previous volumes of this series will well
remember the adventures of Will Smith, Charley (Sandy) Green, George
Benton and Tommy Gregory. After startling experiences among the Pictured
Rocks of Old Superior, in the mysterious swamps of the Everglades, in
the rocky caverns of the Continental Divide, amidst the snows of the
Hudson Bay wilderness, and in the coal caverns of the Pennsylvania
anthracite region, they had decided to spend a portion of the summer in
Alaska. They had reached Controller bay without serious accident, and
now found themselves in one of the most picturesque sections of the
great territory, with plenty of provisions and ammunition.
The lads were all dressed in the khaki uniform of the Boy Scouts of
America, the badges showing membership in the Beaver Patrol of Chicago.
Their coat sleeves showed medals proclaiming the fact that they had
passed examinations and were well qualified to serve as Stalkers,
Seamen, Pioneers, or in the Ambulance squad. The pennant of the Beaver
Patrol flew above the door of the cabin.
Tommy Gregory separated himself from, the group about the supper table
and walked to the heavily-screened doorway. His face was covered by an
Alaska head-net, and he wore a pair of strong leather gloves.
"Why didn't some of you boys tell me that the mosquitos here are as
large as robins?" he asked.
"Because they are only half as large," replied Sandy Green with a grin.
"If some one will hand me my gun off the table," Tommy went on, with a
wrinkling of his freckled nose, "I'll shoot one, and we can have him for
supper! One of the outlaws ought to make a good meal for us four!"
"Better do the killing with a handspike," advised Sandy, "for we haven't
any ammunition to throw away. Besides," the boy went on, "I don't
believe a thirty-eight would kill one of these wild animals, anyway!"
"Up on the Yukon," George Benton interrupted, "when they sentence a man
to death, they don't hang him. They send him down the river in an open
canoe, and give the mosquitos a crack at him!"
"You stated that in the way of an exaggeration," Will Smith suggested,
"but it is the absolute truth, for all that! Men lost among the
nigger-heads have been found later on with their bones picked dry."
"What's a nigger-head?" asked Tommy.
"A nigger-head is a bog," was the reply. "When I say a bog, I don't mean
a swampy hole, either. I mean a grassy knoll sticking up out of a swamp
full of mud. If you keep on the bogs, or nigger-heads, you are
reasonably safe, but if you drop down into the mud, you are likely to go
in over your head."
"How far down does this mud go?" demanded Sandy.
"Down to the ice," replied Will. "This entire country," he went on, "is
lined with ice! Ten or twelve feet below the foundation of this cabin,
the ice is almost as hard as steel. Sometimes the earth-crust over the
ice is a foot thick, and sometimes it is ten feet."
"Are those brilliant flowers growing over a glacier?" asked Tommy,
pointing to a group of violets growing not far away.
"Sure!" replied Will. "If it wasn't for the ice, there wouldn't be any
violets here. The glacier supplies water as well as soil."
"What'd you say about going up to the end of the moraine?" asked Sandy,
joining Tommy at the screened door of the cabin.
"Isn't it quite a climb?" asked Will.
"It isn't so very steep," replied Tommy, "but the way seems to be rather
rocky. I'd like to know where all these round stones come from!"
"They are brought down by the glacier ice and rounded into shape by the
same force which discharges the ice stream into the gulf. There is
always a line of moraine at each side of a glacier, and usually several
ridges in the middle of it. Those at the edge are called lateral
moraines, those in the middle, medial moraines, and those at the end,
terminal moraines. And that's about all I know of Alaska," Will added,
with a smile.
The lads passed up the moraine for some distance, until, in fact, they
came to a point where vegetation became thinner, and hemlocks of smaller
growth. Then they turned toward the west and stood for a long time
watching the yellow glory of the sunset.
But the heat of day passes swiftly in Alaska when the direct rays of the
sun fail, and so the boys were soon glad to return to their cabin, which
they had found standing unoccupied.
"I'd like to know the history of this old shack," Sandy said, as they
paused in the gathering darkness at the doorway.
"There's no knowing how long it has stood here, waiting for us to come
and gladden its dirty old walls with our presence and our scrubbing
brushes!" laughed Tommy. "I've seen a good many cleaner cabins in my
life!"
"And there is no knowing how many tragedies have been enacted here,
either!" exclaimed George. "It must have witnessed many a queer sight!"
"It must have been built within a year or two," Will observed, "for the
logs do not yet show decay."
"What I can't get through my noodle," George said, with a puzzled look,
"is why any one should construct such a habitable little cabin in this
out of the way spot, and then go away and leave it. We must be at least
twelve or fifteen miles from the nearest neighbor."
"We're farther than that," observed Sandy, "judging from the time it
took us to row our supplies over from the floating dock where we landed.
I hope we'll be ready to go out by the time our provisions run short."
"Look here, Will," Tommy questioned, "did Mr. Horton direct you to this
exact spot, or did he only tell you to locate somewhere in this
vicinity? You never told us what he said."
"He told me," was the guarded reply, "that I might be able to find a
deserted cabin on this moraine."
"And he told you right where to find the moraine?" asked Sandy.
"Of course he did!"
"And you said nothing to us about that, either," complained Tommy.
"You're always holding something back from us!"
"Well, now that we're here," George suggested, "perhaps Will can be
coaxed into telling us exactly what we're here for."
"I should say so!" exclaimed Tommy. "We don't, know at the present
moment whether we're here to trap brown bears, or to box and ship
Northern Lights to the eastern markets."
"Don't get sarcastic, boys!" replied Will. "I was instructed by Mr.
Horton to communicate to you all the information in my possession on our
first night in camp, and I'm ready right now to obey orders. Shall we go
inside? The bugs are pretty thick out here!"
"I should say so!" shouted Tommy. "I'm pretty well hedged in from the
blooming insects," he went on, "but it makes me nervous to hear them
blowing their dinner horns every minute."
"Gee!" exclaimed Sandy. "Whenever I get into this anti-mosquito rig, I
feel like an armored train!"
Twilight lay heavy over the landscape now, and so the boys were
confronted by a dark interior as they stepped into the cabin.
"Who's got a searchlight handy?" asked Will.
Tommy replied that he would have a light on in a second, but before the
finger of light from the electric shot into the room, Will half fell
over a yielding figure which lay on the floor not for away from the
table.
Then the circle of light, thrown hastily down, rested upon the white,
drawn face of a boy not far from sixteen years of age. There was a
little showing of blood on the floor, and his eyes were tightly closed,
indicating that he had been rendered unconscious by a wound.
The lad was dressed in the khaki uniform of the Boy Scouts of America,
and the badge on his hat showed that he was Leader of the Fox Patrol.
A long envelope torn open at one end and bearing the name of Will Smith,
lay empty by the lad's side.
"Where did he come from?" cried Tommy, "and who is he?"
"Must have dropped out of the sky!" declared Sandy.
CHAPTER II
THE PRINT OF A THUMB
"The Fox Patrol!" exclaimed George. "I wonder if that means the Fox
Patrol of Chicago? It doesn't seem to me that this kid could have
followed on our heels across the continent!"
Will lifted the torn envelope from the floor and examined it critically.
"That's your name isn't it?" asked Sandy looking over his shoulder.
"It certainly is!" replied Will.
"Well, you've got the address left, anyhow!" said George.
"Say," Tommy suggested, opening his eyes very wide, "some gink followed
the boy here, bumped him on the coco, and stole the communication! I
reckon we're getting into the center of population again. Here we are,
several hundred miles from nowhere, and we've unearthed an innocent
messenger and a bold highwayman already!"
"Have you any idea what the stolen paper contained?" asked George.
"Not the slightest!" replied Will.
"Wasn't it arranged that Mr. Horton should communicate with you after we
reached this point?" asked Sandy.
"Certainly not!" was the reply. "He gave me full instructions before we
left Chicago. If I found a deserted cabin at this point, I was to make
camp here. If I did not, I was to keep along the coast toward Bering
Glacier until I discovered one answering this description."
"But where did this kid come from?" insisted Tommy. "How did he ever get
here all by his lonely? We had two guides to help us in, and it seems
that he came alone, that is, as far as we can see."
"I don't think he came alone!" replied Sandy pointing to the wound on
the boy's head. "He never got a bump like that in a fall!"
"Oh, we'll have to wait until the kid wakes up!" Tommy cut in. "We'd
better be doing something to help him out of his trance, instead of
standing here guessing. He may be badly hurt!"
The limp figure was lifted from the floor and placed on one of the bunks
fastened to the wall of the cabin. The lad groaned slightly as the
change was made, but did not open his eyes.
"I guess he got a bad bump," Will suggested. "And I'm sorry to say that
his wound requires a piece of surgery far beyond my ability to perform.
I'm afraid we'll have to send out for a doctor!"
The boys used every means within their knowledge to bring the lad back
to consciousness, but all their efforts proved unavailing. The lad lay
in a comatose condition long after all their resources had failed.
So busily engaged were the boys in their efforts at resuscitation that
they did not for a moment remember that they, themselves, might be in
danger from the same hand which had struck down the boy.
As they worked over the lad, bathing the wound with hot water and
endeavoring to force stimulating drinks between the set teeth, they did
not observe a bearded face was pressed for a moment against a window
pane. It was an evil face, and was gone on the instant.
After three hours of steady exertion, the boys relaxed their efforts and
sat down to consider the situation. They had searched the boy's
clothing, but had found nothing giving a clue to his name or residence.
"Right out of the air!" exclaimed Sandy. "If we should blunder into a
camp devoid of a mystery, we'd have to move out or die of suffocation!"
"I'd like to know who the boy is, and where he came from," Will said,
after a short pause, "but the principal question now is this: What was
in the paper that was stolen from the envelope?"
"Probably some information directed to you," suggested Tommy.
"Undoubtedly," Will answered.
"And now, instead of coming into your hands," George remarked, "the
warning, or the command, or whatever you may call it, passes over to the
man who attempted murder in order to secure it!"
"That's just the size of it!" Tommy agreed.
"It strikes me," George suggested, "that we'd better set a guard through
the rest of the night. The fellow who struck this blow may be waiting to
strike another!"
"How long were we gone from the cabin?" asked Will.
"Less than an hour," replied Sandy.
"Then, if we had at once set up a search for the assassin," Will went
on, "we might have discovered him."
"Not in a thousand years, in this wild country!" exclaimed Tommy.
Will went to the door and looked out toward the east.
"It will be daylight directly," he said, "and then we will see what can
be accomplished in the way of finding clues."
"Nix on the clue!" argued Tommy. "The gink who bumped our friend on the
cupola came after the paper. He got the paper and ducked, and that's all
there is to it! If there were any secret communications concerning our
mission in the paper, the robber got them!"
"And where does that leave us?" asked Sandy.
"Up in the air!" grumbled Tommy.
"So far as I can see," Will stated, "you boys have the situation sized
up correctly! The boy was sent here to convey certain information to me.
He made his way to the cabin before being attacked. Then he was struck
down and the important paper abstracted from the envelope."
"I've got an idea!" cried Tommy springing to his feet and walking up and
down the cabin floor. "I've got a bully idea!"
"Pass it around," advised Sandy.
"This lad wasn't followed in at all!" Tommy went on. "The man who
attacked him and stole the paper was waiting for him at this cabin! The
lad was mistaken for the boy whose name appears on the envelope, and so
he got what was meant for some one else!"
"But look here," George argued, "if the assassin was waiting here for
the boy to come, why didn't he jump us as soon as we made our
appearance?"
"That's another question I can't answer," Tommy admitted. "I might say
that the man reached the cabin and found this boy sitting here alone,
but that would be only guess work."
Will arose and walked over to the bunk where the wounded boy lay.
"Half a dozen words from his lips would settle the whole question," he
said, "but it appears to me that it will be a long time before he will
be able to speak a word. All our Boy Scout learning in the matter of
wounds is ineffective here!"
"There's one thing clear to me," George argued, "and that is that some
one in this wild region now knows more about our mission here than we do
ourselves. Of course, Will may know quite a lot regarding it," he added,
with a wink, "but, if he does, he hasn't yet confided the story to us."
"That's a hint that you get busy and tell us what we're here for,"
suggested Tommy with another wink.
"I'll tell you what I know about the matter," Will answered, "but in the
face of the fact that a more recent reading of the case is known to
exist, the chances are that any explanations I may make may prove to be
worthless."
"Can you answer a straight question?" asked Tommy.
"I think so," answered Will.
"Will you answer a straight question?" persisted the boy.
"Certainly!"
"Then answer it. What are we here for?"
"We are here," replied Will, "to secure the print of a thumb!"
"Has the shock of this incident turned your head?" asked Tommy.
"I answered the question correctly!" replied Will. "We came all the way
from Chicago to find the print of a man's right thumb!"
"Where do you expect to find it?" demanded Sandy.
"Somewhere among the mountains and glaciers," smiled Will.
"I can get all the thumb prints I want on South Clark street!" declared
Tommy. "Of course, it's fun to come out here, under any pretext
whatever, but I think Mr. Horton might have given us a more sensible
errand than that. This is worse than the trip to the coal mine!"
"Now tell us the excuse Mr. Horton gave for wanting this print of a
man's right thumb," smiled Sandy.
Will arose and went to the door. The sun was lifting through a narrow
pass in the mountains, and the creatures of the thickets and the air
were astir. A flock of water fowl was winging swiftly to the north, and
what seemed to be the keen eyes of a wolf looked out from the shelter of
the undergrowth. The air was clear and invigorating.
"Why don't you answer my question?" asked Sandy.
"Did you hear footsteps outside?" asked Will.
Sandy shook his head, but the two boys, after drawing on their
head-nets, stepped out into the glorious morning.
"There is no reason," Will decided, "why the person who attacked the boy
and stole the paper should find it necessary to leave this section
without trying to find out something more. I have an idea that whoever
injured the lad is still in this vicinity--that he will remain in this
vicinity as long as there is a prospect of his securing additional
information."
"The mosquitos will eat him up if he remains around here without proper
shelter!" Sandy suggested.
"That is one way of fighting off mosquitos," Will said, catching the boy
by the arm and pointing off to the east, where a faint line of smoke was
making its way through the still air.
"There's some kind of a camp there, all right!" exclaimed Sandy.
Tommy and George now came out of the cabin and the four boys stood for
some moments watching the column of smoke which seemed to grow more
dense every moment. While they looked, a second column appeared beside
the first.
"If we were in a Boy Scout country," Tommy exclaimed, "I should say that
was an Indian signal for help."
"In a Boy Scout country!" repeated Sandy. "If this isn't a Boy Scout
country, what is it? Every inhabitant, so far as we know, belongs to the
order!"
"Well, there's a Boy Scout call for assistance," urged Tommy, excitedly,
"and I think we'd better get a move on and see what it means!"
CHAPTER III
A MESSAGE IN CODE
"We mustn't all go," Will said, as his companions started on a run in
the direction of the smoke signals.
"I should say not!" exclaimed Sandy. "If we should all go away at one
time we might find another wounded boy in the cabin on our return!"
"Suppose you keep watch, then," Tommy suggested.
"All right," Sandy agreed. "I'll stay if you'll stay with me."
Tommy grumbled a little at the idea of missing a little possible
excitement, but the two lads entered the cabin and closed the door while
Will and George started away toward the signals.
The moraine over which they passed was something like a floor of loose
rocks of different sizes, with mats of mosses, lichens, sedges, and
dwarf shrubs scattered here and there, so the traveling was by no means
easy. Now and then the boys came to a place where the rocks were
entirely bare, and here their progress was more rapid.
The columns of smoke grew more distinct as they advanced, and, after
traveling a mile or more, they came to a position from which a figure
could be seen moving back and forth between the two fires.
"That's a kid all right!" Will decided, watching the figure closely
through a field glass. "And he's wearing a Boy Scout uniform, too!"
"I have an idea," George declared, with a sly wink at his chum, "that if
we should ascend to the Mountains of the Moon and drop into a gorge a
thousand feet deep, we'd find a Boy Scout in a khaki uniform at the
bottom."
"I'm not kicking at the discovery of a Boy Scout," laughed Will. "The
more Boy Scouts we come across in this desolate land the happier we
shall be."
"I'm not kicking, either," replied George. "I was only commenting on the
queer fact that we find Boy Scouts in every region we chance to visit."
"You'll find the little fellows scattered all over the world!" declared
Will. "And they're always doing something wherever they are."
Will now handed the field glass to George and he, in turn, made a short
study of the figure passing back and forth between the two fires, piling
wood now on one and now on another.
"It's dollars to doughnuts," Will observed, "that the boy by the fires
came in with the one who lies in the cabin with a busted head."
"I've been considering that proposition," George said.
"Then, perhaps, we may be able to solve a portion of the mystery as soon
as we get into conversation with the lad," Will continued.
"I wonder why he didn't come to the cabin during the night?" asked
George. "He surely must have seen the lights shining from the windows."
Will turned and looked back over the route they had followed.
"We can't see the cabin from here," he said.
"That's a fact," George agreed, "and if the smoke hadn't been going up
good and plenty we would never have seen that!"
The next moment the lad at the fires saw Will and George approaching and
ran forward to meet them, uttering as he ran the sharp, quick bark of
the fox. The boys responded with the challenge of the Beaver Patrol.
The lad met the two with anything but a serious or anxious expression on
his face. He grasped them heartily by the hand and pointed toward the
columns of smoke, still rising into the sky.
"No matter where you start a signal fire," he said with a smile, "you're
sure to find some Boy Scout who will understand and answer."
"Even in Alaska!" George grinned. "A thousand miles from nowhere you can
dig up a nest of Boy Scouts by sending up an Indian sign for help."
"Are you Will Smith?" the boy asked after a few more words of greeting
had been exchanged. "If you are, I've come along way to find you!"
"Yes, I am Will Smith," the boy answered.
"How'd you guess it?" asked George. "Why didn't you ask me if I was the
boss of the bunch? Don't I look dignified enough?"
"I have a description of Will Smith lying nicely tucked in at the back
of my brain!" replied the boy. "Mr. Horton told me where I'd be apt to
find him. It seems that I've found him all right, but in doing so, I've
lost my chum! Haven't seen anything of a stray Boy Scout, have you?"
Will did not reply to the question immediately, yet he did not care to
convey to the boy the news of what had occurred until after a clear
understanding of the situation had been reached.
"What's your name?" asked George.
"Frank Disbrow, Fox Patrol, Chicago," was the reply.
"And your chum?" asked Will.
"Bert Calkins, Fox Patrol, Chicago."
"Do you mean to tell me that you have followed us boys from Chicago?"
asked George. "You've had a long chase if you have done so!"
"No," answered Frank, "we were very much surprised, one day, to receive
a wireless telegram from my father, who is connected in various business
operations with Lawyer Horton. The wireless stated that father had work
for us to do in Alaska, and the result of it all was that we received a
long message in code from Mr. Horton."
"In code?" asked Will, excitedly.
"Exactly! In code."
"In whose code?" asked Will.
"Father's," was the reply.
"I see," said Will. "And you, of course, understand your father's code?"
"Certainly!" was the answer.
"What did the message in code say?" asked George.
"It was addressed to Will Smith," was the answer, "and I, following
instructions, did not translate it."
"The message to you simply requested the delivery of the code message?"
asked Will.
"Yes, that's all it told us to do."
"Do you know what the code message contained?" asked Will.
"I do not!" was the reply. "You see," the boy went on, "Bert Calkins and
I were at Cordova on a vacation. If the wireless message had been two
hours later it would have found us on the way to Cook Inlet."
"Just traveling about for the fun of the thing, eh?" asked George.
"That's the idea," replied Frank.
"Perhaps we'd better return to the cabin before we get the history of
this boy's life," suggested George, with a grin. "I don't like the way
these mosquitos howl about my ears. I'm afraid they'll devour the net
and begin on me."
"The cabin?" repeated Frank. "Did you find the cabin?"
"Sure we did," answered George. "And we left the cabin for an hour or so
last night, and when we came back we found a member of the Fox Patrol
asleep on the floor."
"So that's where Bert went, is it?" asked Frank. "You see," the boy went
on, "I got separated from Bert just this side of Katalla. He loitered
behind to view the scenery, or something of that sort, and I came on
ahead."
"And he never caught up with you?" asked George.
"He never did," was the reply, "although I saw him at different times
during yesterday. I thought he headed off in this direction, and so came
here. I've had rather a bad night looking for him."
"He had the code message addressed to Will?" asked George.
"Yes," was the reply.
"The untranslated code message?" Will asked.
"Yes, the untranslated code message."
"Glory be!" shouted George.
Frank looked at the boy in wonder for a moment, and then turned to Will
with a question in his eyes.
"It's a long story," Will said in answer to the look, "and we'd better
wait until we get to the cabin before entering upon it."
"Is Bert all right?" asked Frank.
"He got a little bump on the head somewhere," answered George, "but
he'll come out of that all right, in time. I wasn't rejoicing because
your chum got a poke on the belfry," George went on, whimsically, "I was
shouting because the man who stole the code message didn't accomplish
anything."
Frank, who was now standing by the fire collecting such bits of wardrobe
as had been removed from his handbag, and also collecting the remains of
the solitary lunch of which he had partaken that morning, again turned
to Will with an interrogation point in each eye.
"Was the code message stolen?" he asked.
"It certainly was!" Will answered. "At least a large envelope with my
name written across the front was found, with the end torn open, by your
friend's side as he lay on the floor."
"That's the work of the man who followed us in!" declared Frank.
"We'll get this story all out of you pretty soon," laughed George.
"Suppose we go to the cabin before we uncork the entire yarn," suggested
Frank. "To tell you the truth, boys, I didn't have half enough
breakfast, and I'm about starved to death!"
"All right," Will replied. "There's nothing to keep us here that I know
of. Did you see any one around your camp in the night?" he continued.
"What kind of a night did you pass?"
"A rotten, bad night!" was the answer. "I traveled a long way before I
came to any wood suitable for building a campfire, and after I got one
built it seemed to send out a bugle call to every wild animal within
forty miles of the place. I guess I heard bears, and wolves, and wild
dogs, and bull moose, and every other form, of wild life known to
Alaska, at some time during the night!"
"And all the time," grinned George, "you were not more than a mile or so
from our cabin. It's a wonder you didn't see our light."
"Well, I didn't," Frank replied. "But that's past and gone," he went on,
in a moment, "and what I'm thinking about at the present time is this:
Did the man who stole the code message from Bert force the boy to
translate it for him? Tell me something more about the attack on the
boy."
"We don't know anything about the attack," replied Will. "We found him
lying on the floor of the cabin unconscious, and he has been unconscious
ever since."
"Well," Frank went on, "Bert understands the code, for I taught it to
him while we were translating the telegrams which came to me. Now, if
this outlaw took the code before he struck the blow, the chances are
that he ordered Bert to translate it for him. In that case, something
which those opposed to you ought not to know is in the hands of your
foes."
CHAPTER IV
THE LOST PLANS
"Well, there's a chance that the boy didn't translate the code message,"
George argued. "Anyway, we ought not to worry about that part of the
case. Time enough to fret when real trouble comes."
By this time the boys had reached the cabin, after an exhausting journey
over the moraine. They found Tommy and Sandy standing just inside the
screened doorway, waiting impatiently for their arrival.
"Where did you find this one?" asked Tommy with a grin.
"Did he drop down out of the sky?" Sandy questioned.
Frank stood back for a moment, eyeing the two critically.
"I know you two kids," he said. "You're Tommy and Sandy. I've read about
you in the Chicago newspapers, but I never expected to meet you out in
Alaska. You seem to be getting plenty to eat, judging from your
condition. And that brings back to my mind the condition of my own
stomach."
"Boys," Will exclaimed, "this is Frank Disbrow. He started for our cabin
in company with Bert Calking, the boy we found on the floor last night.
The two were bringing a code despatch to me, and they became separated
early yesterday morning."
"A code message, was it?" Tommy asked.
"Yes, a code message," Will answered, "but the bearer of the despatch
may, for all we know, have been forced to translate the message for the
benefit of the man who robbed him of it."
In a moment Frank was by the side of his chum, gazing down into a white
and haggard face. He turned away in a moment with a little shiver of
anxiety. His face, too, was pale.
"I'm afraid that's a serious wound!" he said.
"If we only had a surgeon," Sandy suggested.
"I'll go get one," offered Tommy. "I can cut across to Katalla in no
time and bring back the best doctor there is in the country."
"I'll go with you," offered Sandy.
"Now, wait a minute, boys!" Will said in a moment. "Let's think this
matter over. If you go to Cordova instead of Katalla, you can
communicate with Frank's father at Chicago, and so get in touch with Mr.
Horton. In this way, we can learn the contents of the code despatch.
There surely was some strong reason for sending it, and it seems as if
we ought to know its contents."
"That's a good idea, too," exclaimed Tommy. "We'll go to Katalla, and
perhaps we can find a boat about ready to sail for Cordova. In that case
we ought to get up to the wireless station and back in a couple of days.
The distance isn't great, but it's rough traveling."
"I wish we could take Bert with us," suggested Frank.
"Are you thinking of going?" asked Will.
"Yes," was the reply, "if I could take Bert out."
"Bert is in no condition to be taken out," Will answered, "and even if
he were it would take so long to make the journey that we could get a
surgeon out here before we could land him in a hospital."
"I think," Frank said, "that I ought to go with the boy who is sent out
after a surgeon. It is not certain that father will communicate by
wireless save to his son. Anyway, I can find out a great deal more by
talking with him than could any one else."
"I guess that's right!" Will replied.
"Then I'll go with him!" Tommy shouted. "I want to see what's going on
in the world of fashion, anyway!"
"All right," Will said. "Pack up your provisions and get ready to move.
Of course you'll need provisions."
"I usually do!" grinned Tommy.
The lads packed up the good supply of sandwiches and started off towards
Katalla. It was somewhere near noon when they left the cabin, and they
expected to reach the town on the coast before twilight fell, the
distance being not more than fourteen miles.
"If you don't get to town when night falls," Will warned, "don't try to
camp out in the open, but keep going until you find some human
habitation. You remember what happened to Bert!"
"Any one who comes within a half a mile of me in a lonely place," Tommy
put in, "will scrape the acquaintance of a bullet."
"And here's another thing," Will advised, "don't travel without a wet
cloth or a bunch of green leaves inside your hat. It'll be ninety in the
shade before the afternoon is over!"
"Yes, and a hundred in the sun!" declared Sandy.
"That's a nice weather for the Arctic regions, isn't it?" asked Frank.
"We have to take it just as we find it!" replied Will.
The boys started away on a brisk walk, and were accompanied by their
chums some distance down the faint trail which led to the coast. At one
time in the history of the country one large glacier had completely
covered that section. But now, thousands of subordinate canyons and
hollows on the mountains were filled with independent masses of ice.
All that section of Alaska, from smoking Wrangell to the Pacific coast,
shows volcanic peaks. There are many dead craters, and some which are
not so dead! There are still peaks of fire as well as rivers of ice.
After the departure of the two boys, Will and the others devoted
considerable attention to the wounded lad. They did their best with the
simple means at hand, but never, for an instant, did the boy regain
consciousness.
"I don't think we can do anything for him until the surgeon comes," Will
said as he threw himself disconsolately into a chair.
"If we only knew whether he was forced to translate the code message for
the benefit of the man who robbed him," Sandy suggested, "there wouldn't
be so much doubt as to what course we ought to take."
"The code message," Will argued, "may change the whole scheme."
"Yes," Sandy complained, "and we won't know what to do until Frank comes
back with the duplicate."
"We won't know what to do then unless Will loosens up!" laughed George.
"Referring, of course," Sandy laughed, "to the prospective story of the
mark of the human thumb. Will was about to tell us all about it when we
saw the signals sent up by Frank."
"That's a fact," Will replied. "I didn't get any further than the
mention of the human thumb, did I?"
"We're waiting to hear the rest of it now!" declared Sandy.
"Well," Will began, "there was a safe robbed in Chicago one night, and
two men were accused of the crime. The accused men were in the employ of
the manufacturing concern whose safe was entered. They admit that they
were in the private office of the firm during the night, but they deny
that they opened the safe."
"Of course!" laughed George.
"Now don't form any hasty conclusions," Will went on. "There was a third
person in the office that night, according to the stories told by the
two men who are accused, but this third person says he wasn't there!"
"Then this third person may be the one who opened the safe."
"That is the theory of the defense," Will explained.
"But what's all this got to do with the mark of a man's right thumb?"
asked George.
"I'm coming to that," Will went on. "The three men who were in the
office that night--we are supposing for the sake of the argument that
there were three men there, and that the man who says he wasn't there is
lying about it--were looking over a set of plans for a new machine which
the company was arranging to manufacture."
"I've got you now!" laughed Sandy. "The thumb print of the third man was
left on the drawings!"
"That's the idea," admitted Will. "The two men say that they were not a
little annoyed during the course of the evening because this man,
Babcock, persisted in pawing over the plans with dirty hands. They
declare that the marks of both thumbs are to be seen on drawings, not in
plain dust and grime, but in ink."
"He must have spilled the ink," suggested George.
"That's what they say," Will replied.
"Well, go on!" urged George.
"The statement is made by the two accused men that they worked over the
plans until after midnight, and that they left this man Babcock at the
office when they went to their homes. Babcock denied that he was in the
office at all that night."
"Where are the plans?" asked George.
"In Alaska," answered Will.
"But whereabouts in Alaska?"
Will looked at the boy quizzically for a moment before he answered.
"That's just what we're here to find out!" he finally said.
"But why, when, where, how?" began the boy.
"One at a time!" laughed Will. "On the morning following the robbery,
the plans having been rejected by the two men who were accused of
robbing the safe, were sent to a mining company having an office at
Cordova. So far as the defense is concerned, they have never been seen
since that time."
"Were they actually sent?" demanded George.
"Yes, they were sent. The manager of the mining company admits having
received them. He says they were turned over to a clerk for examination.
From the time they passed into the hands of this clerk, no one had seen
them. The clerk says he never had them."
"Do the manager and the clerk know what the defense in the robbery case
expects to prove by the papers if they can be secured?" asked George.
"They are not supposed to know," Will answered.
"But you think that they may know, for all that?"
"At the time of leaving Chicago, I had no idea that there would be any
trouble at all in securing the plans. In fact, until Bert was found
lying on our floor last night, I believed that we should discover the
papers as soon as we came upon one Len Garman, a miner who has, against
the advice of his friends, been prospecting in this district, and who is
known to have at one time occupied this cabin."
CHAPTER V
FISHING IN ALASKA
"Are you sure this is the same cabin?" asked George.
"Yes, I am sure this is the same cabin. At any rate, the description is
perfect, both as regards the structure and the surroundings."
"I may be somewhat dense," George went on, "but I can't understand why a
miner who is fool enough to prospect for gold on a dead glacier should
take pains to conceal plans concerning the manufacture of a machine.
What did he want of the plans?"
"I didn't say that he was concealing the plans," laughed Will.
"Well, you inferred as much!"
"As a matter of fact, I think he is hiding the plans."
"Does he expect to go into the manufacturing business?" grinned Sandy.
"I don't know about that," Will replied, "but there is talk that the
clerk and the miner conspired to lose the plans."
"Because of the thumb prints?" asked Sandy.
"No; because the machine outlined in the plans is a mining machine, and
because this clerk, Vin Chase, his name is, and this miner, Garman, have
a notion in their head that they can steal the idea and bring forth a
machine of their own. At least that is the supposition in Chicago."
"The plot deepens!" laughed George, "We'll be doing business with the
Patent Office the first thing we know!"
"Are the plans which are claimed to hold the thumb prints of any value?"
asked Sandy. "What I mean is, is the alleged invention of any account?
You know there are plenty of inventions which are not worth the paper
they are drawn on."
"Spaulding and Hurley, the two men accused of stealing the money," Will
answered, "declare that the plans are absolutely without value."
"Why didn't you tell us all this before we left Chicago?" asked George.
"I don't see any necessity for your keeping the story of the plans such
a profound secret!"
"Well," answered Will, "the principal reason why I didn't tell you the
whole story in Chicago is that I didn't care to clutter your minds up
with a puzzling proposition which might be solved in a moment at the end
of the journey. I expected to find Garman and the plans in this cottage.
In that case, I should have shipped the plans back to Chicago and we
should have gone with our playful little vacation under the North Star."
"Then you wouldn't have told us anything about the plans or the
robbers?" questioned Sandy.
"Certainly not," was the reply. "You see, boys," Will went on, observing
the injured look on the faces of his chums, "we've always been mixed up
in some mystery, ever since the day we started out to visit the Pictured
Rocks of Old Superior. So I thought you might like one trip free of
puzzles and excitements."
"Don't you never permit us to lose sight of a mystery!" exclaimed
George. "I eat mysteries three times a day, and then dream of mysteries
at night! And Sandy," he went on, "just gets fat on mysteries!"
"All right," Will agreed. "If you want to tie your intellect all up into
knots studying out such Sherlock Holmes puzzles as come to me, I have no
objections."
"Well, we've found the cottage," George observed presently, "but we
haven't found the man."
"Perhaps Bert Calkins found him," contended Will.
"Do you really think the miner is still hanging around this cabin?"
asked Sandy. "Do you think he is the man who gave Bert the clout on the
head? If you do think so, we'd better keep a sharp lookout."
"Garman wouldn't know anything about our coming here after the plans!"
suggested George.
"Any man who steals another man's invention, or tries to steal it, will
go to almost any length to protect the thing he has stolen. Even if
Garman had no previous knowledge of our visit to this place our arrival
here would at once excite his suspicions."
"I see that now," agreed George, "and the first thing the fellow would
do would be to try to discover what we were doing here."
"Yes," continued Will, "and that would be sufficient motive for him to
attack the bearer of the code despatch."
"I guess we've got it all doped out now," laughed George. "All we've got
to do is to find this man Garman, take the original plans away from him,
mail them back to Chicago, and go on about our business."
"And the lawyers in Chicago will do the rest!" grinned Sandy.
"It looks easy, doesn't it?" suggested Will.
"Why, if this miner doesn't know anything about what we're here for, we
can tell him any story we're a mind to. We can tell him we're here on a
vacation and have money to invest in a mine, if he can find the right
kind of a mine for us," laughed George. "In twenty-four hours after we
get hold of him, we can have him eating corn out of our hands, like a
billy goat."
"You say it well!" laughed Sandy.
"That's all very well," Will agreed, "provided Garman isn't the man who
took the code despatch from Bert Calkins."
"And provided, too," George declared, "that Garman didn't force the boy
to translate the despatch for his benefit."
"And provided, also," Sandy cut in, "that the code despatch doesn't give
away the whole snap to the miner. If he sees the machine plans referred
to in any way, he'll think we want to get them away from him, because
they are the stolen plans, and then it will be all off for us!"
"And so, when you come to round up on the proposition," Will argued, "we
are not much further along than we were when we left Chicago, except
that we have found the cabin."
"Who said anything about getting dinner?" asked Sandy, after a short
pause. "I remember having a little snack about twelve o'clock, but that
wasn't to be considered as a full meal, I hope."
"What have we got to eat?" asked Will.
"Nothing but a lot of canned stuff!" declared Sandy.
"Well, then, go out and get a deer, or half a dozen rabbits, or go back
here to the little creek that runs into Copper river and see if you can
get a mess of fish. There ought to be plenty of fish in Alaska!"
"What kind of fish can you get?" asked Sandy.
"Salmon!" answered Will.
"How far is it to the creek?" was the next question.
"Something over a mile, I should say," replied Will.
"It can't be any further than that," George cut in. "The glacier this
cabin is built on supplies most of the water for it."
"All right, then," Sandy replied. "I'll get myself up a little lunch
consisting of a couple of slices of bacon and three or four eggs, and go
out and catch a ten-pound salmon for dinner. Want to go with me,
George?" he added. "No need of all three staying here."
"Let Will go," replied George. "I'm tired, and there's a particularly
interesting book I'd like to finish this afternoon."
Will went pawing among the fishing tackle, and finally called out to
George who was just crawling into a bunk with his book:
"What do they catch fish with in Alaska?"
"Hooks!" replied George.
"Hooks and eyes?" asked Will, with a chuckle.
"Sure! Hooks and eyes! You see 'em with the eyes, and grab 'em with the
hooks!"
"Aw, never mind that gink!" laughed Sandy. "He doesn't know any more
about fishing in Alaska than a hog knows about Sunday! Bring along all
the flies we've got and some red flannel, and some pieces of dirty
bacon, and we'll manage to get fish. If one bait won't answer, another
will."
"Do we have to cut a hole through the ice?" asked Will.
"Cut a hole through the ice!" repeated George. "Eighty or ninety in the
shade! If you don't get this boy out of here, Sandy," George added,
"I'll give him a poke in the eye!"
After selecting such flies, hooks, and lines as they thought might prove
alluring to the fish, Will and Sandy started away in the direction of
the little stream which ran out of the glacier a mile or so to the north
and took a general direction toward Copper river.
After walking half a mile or more, they came to a line of rocks which
seemed to extend from the open ice of the glacier to the coast, a
distance of perhaps five or six miles. West of this line of moraine
rocks the land sloped gradually to the northwest and here the headwaters
of the little creek they sought were found.
Straight away to the north, west of the glacier, rose a range of wooded
hills just now bright with blossoms and swarming with insect life. The
little creek crept along to the south of this range, and, further down,
separated the ground to the south from the hills.
Sandy leaped across the little rivulet as it came bubbling out of the
ice hidden under the moraine and started down the bank next to the line
of hills. Will kept to the other side.
"Why don't you come across?" shouted Sandy.
"What's the good of crossing over at all?" Will asked. "Before long the
stream will be so wide that you can't cross back, and then you'll have
to retrace your steps clear to the headwaters!"
"I can swim, can't I?" laughed Sandy.
"Not in that cold water!" replied Will.
Sandy only laughed in reply to the warning, and the two boys proceeded
downstream, one on each side of the rivulet.
Within half an hour they caught half a dozen salmon of fair size,
weighing from four to six pounds, using only red flannel for bait.
"What do you think of a fish in his right mind that'll try to eat red
flannel?" asked Sandy, speaking from the opposite side of the creek.
"Boys do more foolish things than that!" answered Will.
"Explanation!" grinned Sandy.
"They smoke cigarettes, for one thing!" replied Will. "Even a fish that
tries to make a meal off red flannel won't smoke a cigarette."
"We don't seem to get anything very big!" shouted Sandy.
"Well," Will answered back with a faint smile, "take a look up the
hillside and see if that bear coming is large enough for you!"
CHAPTER VI
A MISSING BOY
"Bear nothing!" laughed Sandy. "There isn't a bear within a hundred miles
of us! You can't fool your Uncle Isaac!"
"Look back and see!" advised Will.
Sandy paid no attention to the remark, but kept on fishing, following on
down stream until he was some yards in advance of his chum.
So interested was he in the sport in which he was engaged that he
thought no more of what had been said to him regarding the bear until a
pistol shot reached his ears.
Then he glanced quickly in the rear, taking in the whole line of the
hillside at one glance.
Just at that moment the whole landscape seemed to consist principally of
bear! Will had wounded a great brown bear, and he was charging down
toward the place where Sandy stood. The boy drew his automatic and faced
about, hardly knowing what else to do, as the creek was too wide to leap
across. The bear came on with a rush.
"Run!" shouted Will.
"I guess you'll have to show me a place to run to!" Sandy shouted back.
"This bear seems to have taken possession of about all the territory
there is on this side of the creek."
"Shoot, you dunce, shoot before he gets up to you!" shouted Will. "If he
gets one swipe at you with that paw, you'll land out in the Gulf of
Alaska! Fill him full of lead!"
Sandy began firing, but the bear came steadily on.
"You'll have to swim for it!" shouted Will in a moment. "You mustn't let
that big brute get near enough to hand you one with that educated left
of his. Jump in and swim and I'll help pull you out!"
Sandy looked at the creek and shivered. The water looked blue, as if
shivering from the cold. He faced about and decided to take a few more
shots at the bear before risking his life in the cold water.
"You'll have to jump!" Will shouted from the other side.
"I wouldn't have to jump," Sandy cried back, "If you'd do more shooting
and less talking! Go on and use up your lead!"
In the excitement of the time, Will had, indeed, forgotten to keep his
automatic busy. He now began shooting as fast as the weapon would carry
the lead away, and bruin seemed to take offense at the activity with
which the bullets flew about him. He was bleeding in several places, and
was in a perfect frenzy of rage.
"I guess that's an armored bear!" Will shouted across the creek. "I
don't believe our bullets have any effect on him!"
By this time the bear was within a few paces of Sandy. The boy's
automatic was empty now, yet he obstinately refused to spring into the
water. Bruin reached out one paw and Sandy ducked, coming up behind the
clumsy animal and landed a blow with the butt of the automatic on his
head.
The next few moments were something of a blank in the mind of the boy.
He heard Will calling to him, he knew that he had been struck by the
bear, knew that his chum's bullets were still flying across the river,
and knew that things were turning black around him.
Then he felt a dash of cold water in his face, and looked up to see Will
standing over him, pouring water out of his hat.
"What did I do to the bear?" he asked faintly.
"Wait till you get to a mirror and see what the bear did to you!"
replied Will. "What you got was a plenty!"
"Why didn't I jump in and swim across?" asked Sandy feebly.
"Because you're the most obstinate little customer that ever drew the
breath of life," answered Will. "You took a chance on being eaten alive
by a bear rather than get your feet wet!"
"Did I get my feet wet?" asked Sandy.
"No, but I did!" answered Will. "I had to swim across. The bear handed
you one between the eyes and then dropped dead. I was afraid you'd lie
here all night if I didn't do something, so I swam over."
"So you're the one that got wet?" grinned Sandy.
"Yes, I'm the one that got wet, but you're the one that got beat up!"
replied Will. "Do you think you can walk home now?"
"Sandy straightened out one arm at a time, then one leg at a time, then
arose to a sitting position.
"I don't know why not!" he replied.
"Get up and see if you can walk!" advised Will.
"'Course I can walk!" replied Sandy. "I just went down for the count!"
He scrambled slowly to his feet and turned about to gaze at his late
antagonist. The bear was lying stone dead close to the stream.
"He's a big one, isn't he?" he asked.
"He certainly is," was the reply. "If he'd got a good swipe at you
before he became weak from loss of blood, you'd be in the 'Good-night'
land all right now!" the boy added, with a grin.
"Well, I'm glad he didn't, then!" answered Sandy.
"Do you think we can carry the rug home?" asked Will.
"Perhaps you can," replied Sandy. "I don't feel as if I could carry an
extra ounce. I guess Bruin did pass me a stiff jolt!"
"You bet he did!" replied Will. "Anyway," he added, "we'll have to leave
the rug until some other time, because we've got quite a lot of fish to
carry. If any one steals the hide, we'll have to stand it."
"We might skin the bear and put the hide up in a tree," suggested Sandy.
"We'll have to tan the pelt in the sunshine, anyway!"
"That's a good idea, too!" exclaimed Will, getting busy at once with his
knife. "And that reminds me that we can have bear steak for supper if we
want it. We all like bear steak, you know!"
"I should say so!" replied Sandy.
It took the boys only a short time to remove the pelt from the bear and
provide themselves with a few pounds of steak. Then leaving part of
their fish, they started away up the creek toward the cabin.
Now and then Will stopped in the hurried walk to look toward Sandy and
grin in the most provoking manner.
"If you see anything about me you don't like," Sandy said, half-angrily,
on the third or fourth inspection, "you can just step over here and
knock it out of me! What are you making fun of me for?"
"You look like you'd been through a battle with a cage of monkeys,"
replied Will. "You've got a swipe on the side of the face, and your
cheek is scratched and bloody, and you got a swipe on your shoulder, and
there's a tear on your shoulder, in the flesh as well as in your coat,
and one eye will be black as soon as the blood settles under the
contusion. Take it up one side and down the other, you're a pretty
disreputable looking object!"
"You wait until you get into a fight with a bear, and see how you come
out! I'll bet you won't look as if you'd just dropped in from a pink
tea! You'll look about like thirty cents!"
"When I see a bear coming," replied Will, "I hope I'll have the sense to
run! I won't stay and get into a knock-down argument with him!"
It was nearly sundown when the boys came in sight of the cabin. They
looked eagerly through the twilight for a light, expecting that George
would have the great acetylene lamp in working order.
But no light showed from the cabin, and all was still as they approached
the door. When Will looked in he saw the interior was in confusion.
"I should think George might straighten things out a little bit," he
grumbled. "I'll bet he's been asleep all the afternoon!"
"I presume he has," agreed Sandy.
Will reached to the top of a shelf for an electric flashlight and swung
the circle of flame about the room.
"Why, look here!" he said excitedly, "what do you know about that?"
"About what?" demanded Sandy, who was looking the other way.
"About Bert's bed being empty!"
"That's another joke!"
"Not on your life!" exclaimed Will.
Sandy turned around, gave one glance at the vacant bunk, and dropped
weakly back into a chair.
"Do you think he got up and walked away?" he asked.
"No," replied Will, "I don't!"
"Then, who carried him away?" demanded Sandy.
Will turned the rays of the searchlight on the bunk where he had seen
George cuddle down and then walked over toward it.
"George didn't!" he answered, "because George is here sound asleep!"
"Sound asleep?" repeated Sandy. "Do you suppose he'd lie here and sleep
and let some one come and carry away Bert?"
Will took hold of the boy's leg and half drew him out of the bunk.
"Wake up, here!" he shouted.
George yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"First good sleep I've had in a week!" he said.
"Did you sleep all the afternoon?" asked Will.
"I guess I did!"
"Hear any one around the cabin?"
"How could I, when I was sound asleep?"
"Well," Will went on, "while you were having that fine sleep, some one
came to the cabin and carried off Bert Calkins!"
"What are you talking about?" demanded George.
"Look in his bunk and see!" advised Sandy.
"How was it ever done?" demanded George.
"I'm not asking how it was done," Will returned. "What I want to know
is: Why was it done? What object could any one have in carrying away
that kid? I wouldn't believe he was gone if I didn't see the empty
bunk."
"It's something connected with that code message!" Sandy suggested.
"I've got it!" replied Will. "The man took the message away before he
knew whether he could read it or not. When he found he couldn't read it,
he came back to get Bert to read it for him."
"But Bert is in no condition to be kept prisoner," George insisted. "He
won't give the information the man seeks, and the man will probably
mistreat him because he can't! What we've got to do is to get a move on
and find the boy before he is starved or beaten to death."
"That's just what we've got to do!" agreed Will. "We've got to drop
everything until we find that boy!"
CHAPTER VII
A LOST "BULLDOG"
"How much do you know about this case?" asked Tommy of Frank, as the two
stumbled over the uneven moraine.
"How much do I know about what?" asked Frank.
"Why, this case that your father talked with you about when he used the
wireless; the case referred to in the code message."
"Why, I know that you boys are out here in search of the print of a
man's right thumb!" laughed Frank.
"Is that all?"
"Yes, I know a little more than that. I know that two men are soon to be
tried for burglary, and that the discovery of the thumb marks is quite
essential to a successful defense."
"Did your father tell you all that?"
"Oh, we talked quite a lot by wireless."
Tommy considered the situation for a moment and then said:
"I wish you'd tell me all you know about it."
In as few words as possible, Frank related the story practically as told
to George and Sandy by Will.
"Does Bert know all about this?" asked Tommy when the recital was
finished. "Did you talk the matter over with him?"
"I certainly did."
"I hope," Tommy mused, "that he wasn't forced to tell anything about the
thumb marks when the man robbed him."
"I don't think he would do that," suggested Frank. "He would be apt to
plead ignorance."
The boys came, about nine in the evening, to the little station of
Katalla, which is just a mite of a town sitting perched high above the
Gulf of Alaska. The first thing they did was to make inquiries at the
water front regarding transportation to Cordova.
As they passed swiftly from point to point, consulting a half-breed
here, an Esquimaux there, and an American trader at another point, they
noticed that they were being followed. Finally Tommy drew back and
waited until the man who seemed to be pursuing them came up.
"Are you looking for me?" he asked.
"I would like to speak with you," was the reply.
"Well, then, why didn't you come up like a man and say so?" demanded
Tommy. "You needn't have skulked along in the dark!"
"Fact is," the man answered, "that I heard you making inquiries
regarding the possibility of getting to Cordova tonight."
"Yes, that's where we want to go."
"Have you secured transportation yet?"
"We have not!" Tommy answered.
"Well, I was going to let you inquire at one more place," said the
other, "and then tender you the use of my boat."
"Why were you going to wait?"
"Because I wanted you to exhaust your last chance so that I could get my
own price for the service."
"You must be a Yankee!" laughed Tommy.
"Right!" was the reply. "I'm a Yankee direct from Boston. I don't have
many opportunities of acquiring wealth out here, and I smelt real money
as soon as I saw you boys come to town a couple of days ago."
"What kind of a boat have you?" asked Tommy.
"A swift little motor boat."
"Can you get us to Cordova and back by seven or eight in the morning?"
"I don't think I can do the job as soon as that, but I'll do the best I
can! Why are you in such a hurry?"
"There's a boy sick at the camp!" was the short reply.
"How much are you going to charge for the use of your boat?" asked
Frank. "We're willing to pay for fast service."
"I think a couple of hundred dollars will be about right," was the
reply. "It's a little bit risky going out in the night."
Tommy was about to protest against the exorbitant charge, but Frank
motioned him to remain silent.
"The price is satisfactory," he said. "When can you start?"
"In an hour," was the answer.
After promising to meet the boys at the floating dock in an hour's time,
the owner of the motor boat took his departure, and the two lads dropped
into a smoky and smelly restaurant for supper.
The place was foul with evil language as well as evil smells, and the
boys did not remain long. Instead of sitting down at the table and
ordering their meal, they bought such provisions as they could get and
took their way to the water front. When they sat down to eat their
rather unpalatable repast, they saw that a boy of about their own size
and age was loitering not far away.
"I'll gamble you a five cent piece," Tommy whispered to Frank, "that
that is a Boy Scout! What do you say?"
"You're on!" exclaimed Frank.
Tommy struck three times on the planking of the dock with his open hand.
Instantly there came back to his ears the low snarling voice of a
bulldog. Then footsteps advanced down the dock, and the boy soon stood
close to the others.
"You're a Beaver?" he asked.
"And you're a Bulldog!" said Tommy.
The boys presented their hands, palm out, in the full salute of the Boy
Scouts and then stood examining each other's faces.
"Where's the Bulldog Patrol located?" asked Tommy.
"Portland, Oregon," was the reply.
"Do you live here now?" asked Frank, who had already been introduced as
a member of the Fox Patrol.
"I'm obliged to live here," was the answer, "because I can't get out of
town. I wish I could get away!"
"You may go with us," offered Tommy.
"Where?" was the question.
"To Cordova tonight, and to a camp out on a glacier tomorrow."
"Tickled to death!" exclaimed the boy.
"You're welcome!" declared Tommy;
"Who're you going with?" was the next question.
"He didn't give us his name, but he said he owned a fast motor boat, and
he said he'd get us there and back before noon tomorrow!"
"Jamison is the only man here who has a motor boat, but you want to look
out for him. He's as crooked as a corkscrew!"
"That's the impression I received when he fixed his price."
"Well," the stranger said in a moment, "I've got a little baggage up the
street and I'll go and get it."
He was gone perhaps half an hour, and when he returned the boys saw an
anxious expression on his face.
"Are you sure that man Jamison is going out with you tonight?" he asked.
"He said he would," was the reply.
"He's up there loading in whiskey," the boy, who had given his name as
Samuel White, continued, "and has surrounded himself with about as tough
a bunch of crooks as there is in all Alaska."
"Perhaps he wants them to help run the boat," suggested Tommy.
"No, there's something crooked on foot!" declared Sam. "The fellows are
whispering together in a bar-room up the street, and pounding the
tables, and letting cut great shouts of laughter as if they had a good
joke on some one."
"Do you know any of the men with Jamison?" asked Frank.
"One of them," the boy replied, "is a crooked mine agent, and one is a
fellow who hangs around town without revealing any business whatever,
but seems to have plenty of money."
While the boys talked, Jamison, accompanied by two men who seemed to be
somewhat under the influence of liquor, came down to the dock.
After nodding familiarly to the lads, he gave a signal with a lantern
which he carried in his hand, and in a short time a very capable looking
motor boat came puffing out of the darkness.
"There you are, boys!" he said. "Jump in, and I'll have you up to
Cordova in no time. I've got a good crew on board, and I may be able to
get you back long before noon."
The boys did not exactly like the looks of the "good" crew, but they
said nothing as they took their seats in the little trunk cabin and
waited for the boat to get under motion.
When at last the motors began whirling and the rocking motion told the
lads that they were out among the high waves, Jamison came in and seated
himself by Tommy's side.
"Little bit bumpy tonight," he said, "but you'll soon get used to that.
If you have the money ready, I'll collect fares now."
Frank took two hundred dollars in bank notes from a pocket and passed it
over to the owner of the boat.
"A hundred apiece," Jamison said. "I was to have a hundred for each
passenger. You owe me a hundred more."
"Don't pay any hundred for me," Sam White exclaimed, springing to his
feet. "I'll jump overboard and swim back."
Frank laid a hand on the boy's arm and pushed him back into a seat.
"It's all right," he said. "I did agree to pay a hundred dollars a
passenger. You're quite welcome to the ride at my expense."
As Frank spoke he took a roll of bank notes from another pocket and
stripped off one of the denomination of one hundred dollars.
Jamison saw large denominations, some as high as five hundred dollars,
in the roll, and his evil eyes glittered greedily.
When Frank put up the roll, the fellow's eyes followed it until it
passed out of sight in the pocket. Other members of the crew had seen
the money also, and Tommy was decidedly uncomfortable as he thought of
the situation they were in.
Having received his pay, Jamison grew very friendly and confidential,
and began pointing out the show places along the dim coast.
Presently Sam whispered cautiously in Tommy's ear:
"He is headed for the Barren islands, and not Cordova," he said.
CHAPTER VIII
ON THE GULF OF ALASKA
"Where are the Barren islands, and why should he want to take us there?"
asked Tommy, apprehensively.
"The Barren islands," replied Sam, "lie in the Gulf of Alaska, just
south of the mouth of Copper river, west of Controller bay. They extend
along the coast, only a short distance out, for twenty miles or more,
and are just what the local name signifies, Barren islands."
"But why should he want to take us there?" insisted Tommy, slipping a
hand toward his hip pocket to make sure that his automatic was ready for
any emergency.
Sam did not answer the question, for Tommy's quick start of surprise,
his low exclamation of dismay, checked the words which were on his lips.
Instead, he pushed closer to the lad and asked:
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"My revolver has been taken!" replied Tommy.
Frank, sitting close to his chum on the other side, now pushed his hand
into his hip pocket and brought it forth empty.
"So is mine!" he said.
The boys looked at each other for a moment in the gathering darkness
without speaking. The situation was a serious one.
"Who did it?" asked Tommy presently.
"No one has been near me except that man Jamison," replied Frank.
"He's the only one who's been within reaching distance of me," Tommy
observed. "He must be a clever pickpocket!"
"I saw him eyeing that roll of money rather greedily," Sam cut in,
speaking in a very low tone, for Jamison had new turned back from the
prow and was looking in their direction.
"I noticed that, too," Frank answered. "I'm afraid we're going to get
into trouble with that gink. Anyway," he continued, "he's started in
right. He did well to get our guns before he started anything!"
"He didn't get my revolver," Sam said with a low chuckle. "It's a little
bit of a baby thing, but it's a great deal better than none!"
"It will shoot, won't it?" asked Tommy.
"It will shoot, all right, but it's only a twenty-two," replied the boy.
"I've been trying for the last two days to get a square meal on it, but
couldn't get even a ham sandwich. They don't look with favor on baby
guns up in Alaska. They want the real thing!"
"Well, keep your gun where you can reach it at any moment!" advised
Frank. "Even a twenty-two caliber may prove effective at short range."
"I presume," Sam went on, "that my coming on board in shabby clothes,
and as an object of charity, convinced Jamison that I wasn't worth
searching. I saw him looking me over, though!"
"Object of charity--not!" returned Frank. "We're mighty glad you're with
us right now! You say he's taking us to the Barren islands. Well, we
wouldn't know the Barren islands from any other place without you.
You've put us on our guard, at least, and that's worth more than the
price of the ticket! We're glad of your company, too!"
"Now, see here, boys," Tommy whispered, "we mustn't let this man Jamison
know that we have discovered that we have been robbed. The minute he
knows that we are suspicious of him, the matter will come to a focus
immediately. We've got to have time to think this matter over before
anything is done."
This plan of action was agreed to, and the boys sat for some minutes in
silence. After a time Jamison came to where they were seated, just at
the doorway of the trunk cabin, and began asking questions about the
need for a doctor. Tommy explained that a member of their party had been
injured by a fall, and that they were going to Cordova in quest of a
surgeon. He again asked Jamison to put on full speed.
"There's a man over here on the coast, this side of Katalla, who is said
to be a fine surgeon," Jamison explained, after Tommy had finished his
statement. "He's a sort of a recluse, people say, and lives alone in a
shabby hut, high up above the tide. You might stop and consult him. That
would be better, it seems to me, than going away up to Cordova. Still,"
he went on with a grim smile, "I've been paid to take you to Cordova and
back, and, if you insist, I mean to live up to my bargain!"
Sam gave Frank a quick poke in the ribs and whispered in his ear:
"Yes, he does!"
"Let him play out his string," whispered Frank in return.
"This surgeon," Jamison went on, "is a queer old fellow. Sometimes he'll
take a case, and sometimes he won't. If he feels in an ugly mood, he's
likely to kick us out of his cabin."
Tommy listened with apparent interest to what the treacherous Jamison
was saying, but it is needless to remark that he did not accept it as
truth. It was his belief that the fellow was manufacturing a pretext for
getting himself and his friends quietly on shore as soon as one of the
Barren islands was reached.
There were three men on board the motor boat besides Jamison. They were
evil-looking fellows, and spent most of their time on the forward deck,
where the steering wheel and the motors were located.
The men frequently drank out of a black bottle, and were fast becoming
intoxicated. Instead of attempting to restrain the fellows, Jamison
seemed to encourage them in their debauch.
"He's getting them in trim to start something," Sam whispered, as the
three men broke into a rough drinking song.
"Yes," agreed Tommy, "I imagine that he wants whatever takes place on
board the boat tonight to be regarded as the acts of men made
irresponsible by whisky. You'd better keep your gun handy, Sam!"
"I've got my hand on it every minute!" replied the boy. "And if anything
is started here, Jamison will be the first one to know that I've got it!
He's the man that needs the lesson!"
It was very dark now, and the sea was rough. The motor boat plunged
about like a leaf, tossing from wave to wave, and dropping into one
trough after another. It was plain that the members of the crew were
becoming too drunk to handle the boat.
Jamison finally approached the cabin doorway and sat down on one of the
stationary seats. Notwithstanding the fact that the boat was taking
water at almost every jump, the fellow's face bore a satisfied look.
"What are those fellows trying to do with the boat?" asked Tommy.
"Oh, they're all right!" answered Jamison.
"Looks to me like they were trying to drop us to the bottom," Frank
said. "There won't be any boat left directly!"
"I guess they have got a little too much John Barleycorn on board!"
laughed Jamison, as the boat gave a lurch which sent him head foremost
from his seat. "I'd go and take the wheel myself, only I don't know much
about running a motor boat under present conditions."
Frank gave Tommy a quick nudge in the side.
"I can run the boat," he whispered, "shall I?"
"If he'd let you, yes!" replied Tommy.
"Where shall I take her?"
"To Cordova, of course, but perhaps you'd better wait until the men get
a little bit drunker. Jamison will become frightened for the safety of
his boat before long, and then he won't object to your taking charge of
her. He's beginning to look sick already."
"If I ever get hold of that wheel," Frank whispered to Tommy, "I'll send
her flying toward Cordova! I hope the members of the crew will be too
drunk to know which, way I'm taking them."
Directly the boat gave another tremendous lurch, soaking the boys with
cold salt water. Jamison rose to his feet with an oath and, steadying
himself by clinging to the top of the cabin, shook a fist angrily at the
man at the wheel. The man frowned back.
"What are you doing, you drunken hobo?" shouted Jamison.
The man grinned foolishly but said not a word.
"I wish I knew how to operate a motor boat as well as he does when he's
sober," gritted Jamison.
"The owner of a boat ought to know how to run her!" suggested Frank.
"I bought the boat only a few days ago," replied Jamison.
"Look here," Frank said, as the boat gave another sickening whirl, "I
can run a boat all right. Shall I take hold?"
"No," replied Jamison sourly, "we've got to land!"
"But there is no place to land," urged Sam.
"There is a place on the point where the doctor lives," answered
Jamison, "where we can land in a rowboat. I'm glad now that I brought
the dinghy along with us. We can anchor the motor boat under the point
and take refuge in the doctor's cabin until this storm blows over."
The boys were greatly disappointed at this decision on the part of
Jamison, but they dare not argue the point with him for fear that he
would suspect that they were watching his every movement.
In a few moments a dark bulk showed directly in front of the racing
motor boat, and only the quick action of the man at the wheel prevented
a collision with a bold headland which showed dimly under the light of
the few stars which looked down from the cloudy sky.
In a moment the boys saw a light, and then Sam whispered to Frank:
"That's not a coast point," he said. "It's one of the Barren islands. I
don't believe there's any doctor there, as he said! What shall we do if
he asks us to go ashore?"
"We'll have to go, I suppose," returned Tommy, "but, all the same," he
went on, "if we get a chance to get possession of the boat, we'll let
these outlaws take a swim to the shore!"
Presently the boat came under the shelter of the headland, and then a
member of the crew, in obedience to whispered orders from Jamison,
dropped into the dinghy which had been trailing behind, and shouted to
his mate to follow. Then Jamison himself stepped into the dinghy, which
was swinging about wildly in the surf.
"Now boys," he said, "if you'll get aboard, we'll take you ashore for an
interview with the doctor. He'll demand big pay, but he's skillful and
you ought to secure his services if you can."
"Only one man on board now," cried Tommy, "Now's our chance!"
CHAPTER IX
THE CLUES WILL FOUND
"I wish one of you boys would give me a good swift kick," George
exclaimed as the three lads stood in the cabin discussing the strange
disappearance of Bert Calkins.
"I'd do that all right if it would accomplish anything!" laughed Will.
"I'll do it anyhow, if you insist upon it!" grinned Sandy.
"It was a rotten thing for me to do!" exclaimed George. "I never
expected to go to sleep when I lay down in my bunk, but I did go to
sleep, and some one walked into the cabin and carried Bert away! I'll
never get over it if anything serious happens to him!"
"Aw, cut it out!" exclaimed Sandy. "We'll find him all right. The
question before the house right now is whether we're going to get supper
before we start out on a hunt for the kid."
"We may as well get supper," Will advised. "There's no use whatever of
our running around in circles in the dark. We've got to sit down here
and reason it out. Before we do anything at all, we ought to reach some
conclusion as to why the poor kid was taken away."
"Why, I thought that was all understood," Sandy interrupted. "I thought
we decided not long ago that the man who stole the code wireless came
back to get Bert to translate it for him."
"There was some talk of that kind," Will agreed, "and I guess it's as
near to the truth as we can get with our present knowledge of the
incident. Anyway, I can conceive of no other reason for the abduction."
"Then we may as well get supper while we're studying out the
proposition," George said, "and, by way of penance, I'll do the
cooking!"
The lad turned to Sandy to ask a question regarding the sudden
appearance of the bear steak, and then for the first time noted his
dilapidated and generally disreputable condition.
"Where did you get it?" he asked, pointing to the bruised face and torn
garments. "You've gone and spoiled a perfectly good Boy Scout suit."
"And the bear we're going to have for supper," Will chuckled, "came very
near spoiling a perfectly good Boy Scout."
"Did the bear hand him that?" asked George.
"He certainly did!" replied Sandy. "And he put me out for the count,
too!"
"Then I'll take great joy in eating him!" declared George.
While George fried the bear steak over the gasoline "plate," Sandy told
the story of the fishing trip, while Will listened with a grin on his
face, now and then interrupting with what Sandy declared to be an
entirely irrelevant remark.
The big acetylene lamp which, had come in with the boys' baggage had not
been set up, so the cabin was now lighted only by flashlights. This made
cooking difficult, and George protested against it, so Will went to work
setting up the tank and getting the big lamp into use.
"That's better!" exclaimed George, as the great light flashed out. "Now,
while I'm cooking the supper, you might look about and see what you can
discover in the way of clues. There is an old theory, you know, that no
person can enter a room and leave it without their leaving behind some
trace of having been there!"
"That's a part of the Sherlock Holmes business that I entirely
overlooked!" laughed Will. "Come to think of it, the fellow must have
left some clue here. We'll see if we can find it!"
While Sandy and George worked industriously over the gasoline "plate,"
frying bear meat and fish, and making toast and coffee, Will began a
thorough search of the cabin floor. He moved about for some moments on
his hands and knees, studying the rough boards through a microscope.
When he came to the bunk he examined that in the same careful and
painstaking way. Sandy and George pretended to be very much amused at
his alleged posing as an investigator, but the boy paid no attention to
their smiles and sarcastic remarks.
All through the meal Will kept his own counsel as to what he had
discovered, if anything. His chums quizzed him unmercifully, but he gave
out no information regarding discoveries until after the meal was
completed and they sat, wrapped in their heavy coats, before the
stripped table, now bearing only empty dishes.
"Now tell us about it!" demanded Sandy. "How tall was this man who
carried Bert, away?"
"Five feet six," replied Will.
"Black or white?"
"Black hair and eyes and whiskers."
"Fat or lean?"
"Neither, just heavily built."
"Come, Smarty," Sandy laughed, "perhaps you'll be kind enough to go on
now and tell us the color of his necktie."
"He didn't wear any necktie!" answered Will. "He wore a leather hunting
shirt and leather leggings. His hands were protected from the mosquitos
by leather gloves. He wore moccasins."
"Will you be kind enough to tell us what he had for supper last night?"
asked Sandy. "Also, can you tell us which side he sleeps on nights?"
"This is no joke!" Will answered. "I really think I have a good
description of the man who abducted Bert. And I think, too, that the
description will serve to locate him."
"That's all right!" laughed George, "when Tommy comes back, we'll have
him get out his dream book and read you to sleep!"
"Yes," Will said gravely, "when Tommy comes back with the surgeon."
"It would be a rotten proposition, wouldn't it, if Tommy should get back
with the surgeon before we found Bert?"
"It certainly would," answered Will.
"Tommy can't possibly get back before some time tomorrow night," Sandy
argued, "and we ought to be able to find the boy before that time!"
"Especially as Will has a perfect description of the outlaw," said
George with a wink at Sandy.
Then the boy added with a laugh:
"Go on, Will, and tell us how you know the man's size and weight."
"Yes," Sandy broke in. "Tell us how you know he's exactly five feet six.
You weren't here to measure him!"
"The wall measured him!" replied Will.
"Oh!" exclaimed Sandy with a grin.
"Back there by the door," Will went on, "the man leaned against the wall
for some purpose. Of course, I don't know why, but I suspect that he
leaned there for a moment to get the boy well balanced in his arms
before stepping outside. At any rate, he stood there for an instant with
a broad back braced against the dusty logs. You can see where the top of
his head came, without getting up."
"That's reasonable!" replied Sandy. "Now tell us how you know he has
black hair and eyes."
"He left half a dozen hairs on the pillow at Bert's bunk," replied Will.
"Also he left coarser black hairs which evidently came from his face.
They lie there on the table."
The boys examined the hairs curiously, and then Will asked:
"What do you think of it?"
"I think," replied Sandy, "that Bert regained consciousness while he was
being lifted from the bunk and got in a couple of digs at the fellow's
hair and whiskers."
"The motion which removed the hair and whiskers," suggested George,
"might have been entirely involuntary."
"That's very true!" answered Will. "It doesn't seem to me that the boy
regained consciousness. If he had, he would have made such objections to
being taken away that George would have been awakened. At any rate the
hairs are here, and that is sufficient!"
"Now tell us how you know about the bulk of the fellow."
"The marks on the wall show that," replied Will.
"What do you know about his leather leggings, hunting shirt and gloves?"
asked Sandy. "I know about the moccasins, because I saw the tracks on
the floor myself. He must be an Indian if he wore moccasins."
"I never saw an Indian with long whiskers!" replied Will.
"Well, go on and tell us about the leather he wore," urged George.
"The hunting shirt," Will replied with a smile, as he pointed to a small
piece of leather lying on the table, "was patched and in the struggle at
the bunk the patch was torn away. A cloth garment, you know," he
continued, "wouldn't be apt to be patched with leather."
The boys looked at the leather patch, not much larger than a silver
dollar, and nodded their heads.
"The marks on the wall where the outlaw seems to have balanced his
burden, show that he wore leather gloves," Will continued. "You can see
the blunt mark where he threw up a hand to steady himself. The fingers
of a cloth glove would have shown narrower."
"I guess you've got the Sherlock Holmes part of it all right!" said
George, "so all we've got to do now is to find the boy!"
"But this will help!" Sandy argued. "At least we know what kind of a man
to look for. By the way, how did you know that he wore leather
leggings?"
"He lost a buckle!" replied Will. "I found it on the floor under Bert's
bunk. And so, you see," the boy went on, "when we find a man wearing
leather leggings from which a buckle has been lost, we'll be perfectly
justified in keeping close watch of him."
"It seems as if there must have been a struggle here!" George argued in
a moment. "The man lost hair, whiskers, a buckle, and a patch off his
hunting shirt! I don't see how I could have slept through it all!"
"Well, you did!" returned Sandy, "and that's all there is to it!"
"Are we going out tonight?" asked George.
"Of course, we are!" answered Sandy. "We're not going to crawl into bed
in comfort and leave Bert in the hands of some brigand!"
Will held up his hand for silence, and the boys sat looking at each
other with questioning eyes as a soft knock came on one of the windows.
In an instant their eyes were turned in the direction of the sound, and
what they saw caused them to spring excitedly to their feet.
During the silence which followed, the sound of a heavy footstep was
heard at the door of the cabin. When they looked again nothing was to be
seen at the window.
CHAPTER X
IN LUCK AT LAST
Instead of moving toward the dinghy, the boys sprang to the top of the
trunk cabin and dashed forward toward the wheel.
With an oath Jamison tried to clamber back to the deck of the motor
boat, but the dinghy was just then performing a bit of nautical
gymnastics at the bottom of a trough and he did not succeed in reaching
the desired footing. He fell back into the bottom of the boat, cursing
the two rowers because they had not assisted him.
As Frank and Tommy sprang forward over the cabin the man at the wheel
released his hold and reached for a pistol. The boat swung around and
would have been capsized only that Frank seized the wheel and brought
her head to the waves again.
The wheelsman struck a savage blow at the boy as he threw the wheel
around, and was in turn the object of attack from Tommy. The two went to
the deck together and came near being thrown into the sea.
When the short battle ended the wheelsman lay on the deck unconscious,
his head rolling from side to side as the boat tossed about on the
waves. In the fall his head had struck the rail.
Seeing that Jamison and the rowers were still trying to board the motor
boat, Sam rushed to the after deck and threatened them with his
revolver. In a moment Jamison presented a thirty-eight at the boy's
head.
"This is piracy!" he shouted. "Surrender, or I'll blow your head off!
This is piracy, I tell you!"
The only reply to the man's threat was the increased clatter of the
motors. Tommy had turned on full power, and Frank was heading the craft
for the mouth of Copper river. As she drew away from the dinghy, several
harmless shots were fired.
"That was a close shave!" Tommy declared as the three boys gathered on
the forward deck. "If Jamison hadn't been a fool, we couldn't have done
it! Can you find your way to Cordova, Frank?" he added.
"Sure I can!" was the reply, "but I take it that we don't want to go
there just now."
"And why not?" asked Tommy is surprise.
"Because this is piracy, all right!" exclaimed the boy. "Old Jamison was
right, and he'll have all the officers along the coast after us as soon
as he gets to land. We're in bad with the cops now."
"But Jamison won't be able to get to land tonight!" suggested Sam.
"Indeed he won't!" agreed Frank. "He'll have to pull in toward the
island and lie there on his oars until daylight."
"Can't he land?" asked Tommy.
"I don't think he can land in the dark!" was the reply.
"Why can't we get to Cordova and get back here with the surgeon before
he can communicate with the officers?" asked Tommy. "We can't afford to
go into hiding just now. We've got to get the doctor up to the cabin,
and we've got to find out what that code message contained."
"How far is it from here to Cordova?" asked Frank.
"It must be about thirty-five or forty miles," replied Sam. "If the waves
wouldn't keep us traveling up and down all the time, we ought to make it
in about three hours."
"Jamison was trying to make us believe he was doing a fine thing if he
took us to Cordova and back in ten or twelve hours!" said Tommy.
"I don't think he intended to take us to Cordova at all!" insisted Sam.
"Well," Tommy argued, "there's no way he can stop us until we get to
Cordova, and he can't stop us then unless he reaches the coast or gains
the wireless station before we leave the town. Once out on the gulf
again, with the surgeon on board, we'll reach Katalla in spite of
Jamison, and start the doctor toward the cabin."
"Then here goes for the town!" cried Frank, turning on an extra bit of
power and sending the boat through the waves like a meteor.
It was rough riding, but the boys were fairly good seamen and stood the
shaking up well.
About midnight the wheelsman began showing signs of consciousness. He
sat up on the swaying deck and motioned for water.
"Tip him overboard!" advised Sam.
"Aw, give him a drink," argued Tommy. "If you'd had had as much red
liquor during the last few hours as he's had, you'd want to connect with
the water cooler, I guess! Give the man a show!"
"Where are you taking the motor boat?" asked the wheelsman.
"Cordova."
"Is that right about your wanting a surgeon?"
"That is right!" replied Tommy.
"Where is he wanted?" asked the wheelsman, who had given the name of
Boswell. "Why didn't you bring the sick boy out with you?"
"Because we thought it better to take the surgeon to him!" replied
Tommy. "The boy really wasn't able to be moved!"
"Fever?" asked Boswell.
Tommy hesitated a moment before replying. He was in doubt as to just how
much he ought to tell Boswell. The fellow seemed to be friendly enough,
and might be useful in case the lads were arrested for piracy, as, if he
saw fit, he could testify that Jamison was not carrying out his
agreement with them, but, instead, was planning to maroon them on a
barren island in the gulf. Owing to these considerations it seemed best
to keep on good terms with the fellow, and yet Tommy did not care to
describe in full what had taken place at the cabin.
"No, the boy isn't sick of fever," Tommy finally answered. "He received
a wound on the head and lies unconscious."
Both boys thought they saw Boswell give a quick start, but in a moment
his face was as impassive as ever.
"Do you know what Jamison was up to?" asked Sam after a short pause.
Boswell looked keenly at the boy before answering.
"I only know what he told me!" he replied.
"What did he tell you?"
"He said he had a joke on you boys; that he was charging you three
hundred dollars for a trip to Cordova, and that he meant to leave you on
the first little island in the gulf that he came to."
"Did he tell you why he was going to do that?" asked Tommy.
Again Boswell looked keenly at his questioner.
"I guess I'd better not answer that question," he said finally.
"I wish you would answer it," Tommy urged. "I ought to know just what
motive the fellow has for throwing obstacles in my way.
"He thinks it's funny!" answered Boswell.
"That isn't the correct answer," Tommy insisted. "He has some motive for
what he is trying to do. I'd like to know what that motive is."
"You can't find out from me!" declared Boswell.
"You must be a chum of his!" sneered Sam.
"I hate the ground he walks on!" replied Boswell. "I wouldn't have hired
out to him at all if I hadn't been drunk. But I'm not going to repeat to
any one what he told me in confidence!"
"We shall have to put you off some distance this side of Cordova," Tommy
suggested, "because if we don't you're likely to make us trouble by
reporting the case of alleged piracy as soon as we land."
"You needn't trouble yourself about my reporting anything," Boswell
answered. "I'm not mixing with Jamison's affairs! If you boys are
arrested for piracy, I'll tell all I know about it, and that won't do
you any harm."
Dawn came slowly that morning, for heavy clouds were gathering in the
sky. The short Arctic night came to an end at last, however, and in the
murky distance the boys saw the long coast line. Shortly after three
o'clock they passed the wireless station and landed, not without some
difficulty at Cordova.
They found the town asleep, of course, but after a time an early riser
directed them to the residence of a surgeon. They arranged with him to
meet them later in the day and at once set out for the wireless station.
It was two hours before they saw the operator coming to his post of
duty.
He remembered Frank, and willingly promised to at once open
communication with Seattle and take up the work of securing a duplicate
of the code message. He explained that a copy had been kept, but that it
had been destroyed by a careless janitor, who had said that he could
make nothing at all of the jumble of words and letters!
As soon as Seattle answered the Cordova call, a duplicate of the code
telegram was asked for, and Seattle undertook to place the request on
the wire and cause it to be rushed through to Chicago.
"We ought to receive the answer some time this afternoon," the operator
said as the boys started away.
CHAPTER XI
MAKING NEW PLANS
When the boys returned to the floating dock at which the motor boat had
been tied during their absence at the station they found Boswell sitting
in the cabin in a crouching attitude.
"Did you get what you wanted?" he asked.
Tommy shook his head.
"Then," continued the sailor, "you'd better give over trying to get it
for the present and duck away from here! You'll have trouble if you
don't!"
"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank.
"Do you see the tug coming up the bay?" asked Boswell.
"Certainly!" was the reply.
"Well, she's been signalling to have this boat held until she arrives!
And the chances are that she picked up Jamison and his pirates somewhere
near the island where you left them."
"Then, of course, Jamison will want us arrested for piracy?" asked Tommy
tentatively. "I presume that's what it means."
"Well," Boswell replied, "when you take another man's boat and leave him
afloat in a dinghy, you must expect something to come of it besides
kisses. Of course you'll be arrested!"
Frank gave a long, low whistle of dismay.
"Then," he said, "we'll have to go and notify the surgeon of what's
coming off and get him to go on to the cabin alone."
"Yes," Tommy added, "and we can tell him to inform the boys what's going
on here. We may have to remain here for several days if we are actually
arrested."
"But how about the code duplicate?" asked Sam.
"I presume that will have to remain with us unless it comes before the
doctor leaves for the cabin," Tommy answered.
"Look here," Sam said, "you two boys are the fellows Jamison wants. He
won't put up much of a search for me. You go back to the wireless
station and tell the operator to deliver the code duplicate to me and
I'll see that it gets to the cabin."
"It's all right of you to make the offer," Tommy replied, "but there's
no one at the camp that can read it."
"Then why can't Frank slip away and get the message to camp?" inquired
Sam.
"Will certainly ought to have it," suggested Tommy.
"I'll tell you what we'd better do," Frank advised. "We'd better make a
rush for the Cordova dock before that tug gets in. Then we can arrange
with the doctor to go on to the cabin by any conveyance he can secure
while we take a sneak into the wilderness and get back when we can and
as we can. That's better than being arrested."
"I'm for it!" declared Sam. "But how will you obtain possession of the
wireless when it comes if you duck away in advance of the arrival of the
tug? The message won't be here as soon as the tug is."
The boys pondered over this proposition for a moment, and then Frank
came to the front with another suggestion.
"I'll go back to the wireless station," he said, "and arrange for the
operator to leave the message in some secret hiding place where we can
get it after nightfall."
"I don't like this fugitive-from-justice business!" exclaimed Tommy.
"I don't either," replied Frank, "but it's a long ways better than lying
in some dirty old jail. We can arrange here with father's agent to find
out what sort of a case they've got against us, and pick out a good
lawyer to represent us, so we'll be all ready to defend ourselves when
the arrest is finally made."
"Your father has an agent here?" asked Tommy, regarding Frank
suspiciously. "What business is he in?"
"Oh, quit it!" replied Frank. "We haven't any time to talk about private
affairs. What we've got to do right now is to find out how we're going
to escape arrest at this time. I'll go and make the arrangement with the
operator, and we'll all make the arrangements with the doctor, and then
we three boys will start across country to the little old log cabin in
the lane!"
"There ain't no lane there!" grinned Tommy.
"There may be some time, when that part of the country becomes a suburb
of Cordova!" laughed Frank. "But I reckon I'd better be getting back to
the wireless office. That tug's coming in hand over hand!"
The boy was back from the office inside of ten minutes, but by that time
the tug was so near that the motor boat was obliged to shoot ahead at
full speed in order to keep clear of her. The boys saw Jamison standing
by the captain urging him to greater efforts in the speed direction, and
saw him shake a huge, ham-like fist in their direction as the motor boat
left the tug behind.
"I'll tell you why I want to leave the case in the hands of a lawyer
here," Frank said, as the boat shot toward the Cordova dock, "Jamison
doesn't want to prosecute us boys for piracy. He's interested in some
way in this case you are here to handle, and he wants to keep us under
lock and key until something he wants done can be accomplished."
"I'm sure that's right!" Tommy answered.
"I don't know much about this thumb-print case," Frank went on, "but I
believe that this man Jamison is trying to make sure that you boys don't
get hold of the drawings you are looking for. Of course I have no proof,
but I'm sure that, in the long run, you'll find that I'm right?"
The motor boat made such good time in the run for the Cordova dock that
the tug was nearly out of sight when the boys climbed into the main
street of the town.
"Now," Tommy said, as they all stood together at the principal business
place of the town, "Frank can go and make sure that the doctor will
start for the cabin immediately, and Sam and I will go and buy
provisions for the cross country trip. We may be two or three days in
making it, and we'll surely want to eat on the way."
"But we can't get the wireless until night!" urged Frank. "He's going to
bring it to Cordova tonight and leave it in the old blacksmith shop just
back of the line of store buildings."
"Well, we can get all ready to go," Tommy urged. "We don't want to take
any chances on being pinched just as we get ready to leave!"
"We'll meet at the old shop in half an hour," Frank suggested, "and then
we can make all the plans necessary."
Tommy noticed that afternoon that a strange fatality seemed to accompany
all of Jamison's efforts to cause the arrest of the boys. First, there
was no Federal officer in the town. Next, there was no judicial or
ministerial officer before whom a complaint of piracy could be made.
Next, the motor boat owner and his two outlaws accosted Boswell on the
street and made to him insulting remarks concerning his championship of
the boys.
Following this there was a general mixup, in which Boswell was not
permitted to fight alone, and the result was that Jamison and his two
sailors were badly beaten up. However, while the lads knew exactly what
was taking place, and understood the hostility of the town toward
Jamison, they understood, too, that it would be the duty of almost any
officer to arrest them if they should make their appearance on the
public street.
Tommy wondered vaguely at the hostility displayed toward Jamison, but
Frank explained it all by saying that the fellow was a common loafer and
hadn't a friend in town.
The boys might have been arrested a dozen times that day had the
hostility to Jamison and his men not taken such positive form. But while
Jamison, half-intoxicated, roared about the street, the boys kept as
quiet as possible and so escaped general notice.
About two in the afternoon the boys were very much surprised to see a
gentleman who had been pointed out to them as the surgeon walk into the
old blacksmith shop where they sat. He beckoned Frank to one side and
the two engaged in a short but apparently satisfactory conversation, at
the conclusion of which the doctor shook the boy's hand heartily.
"All right," he said on taking his departure, "I'll attend to the matter
at once! I know the operator and it'll be all right there."
"Now, what's up?" demanded Tommy suspiciously.
"I've got a new scheme!" replied the boy.
"Pass it around!" urged Tommy.
"Now, you just wait until I see whether the doctor gets the message or
not!" replied Frank. "If he does, it's us for a ride home!"
"I'd like to steal that old drunkard's motor boat!" Tommy said.
Frank broke into a hearty laugh.
"You just wait and see!" he said. "We've got to be mighty careful to
keep away from the Federal officers, for a deputy marshal has been sent
for. Can you get up a good hot run if you have to?"
"You bet I can!" answered Tommy.
"Well, we may get a signal to make a hot foot to the dock directly," the
boy went on, "and if we do, there mustn't be any mistake about the pace
you set."
"Are you really going to steal the motor boat?" asked Sam.
"I don't know!" replied Frank. "We've been waiting around here all day
for something to take place, and I guess it's about time there was
something doing."
"I thought you were going to wait until night before sneaking out with
the despatch," suggested Tommy, eyeing his friend suspiciously.
"When we made those plans," replied Frank with a grin, "I didn't know
how many friends I had in town."
"Is the doctor going with us?" asked Tommy.
"No," was the reply, "we are going with him!"
"Aw, have it your own way," Tommy exclaimed. "I never could get any
satisfaction talking with you!"
The doctor returned to the old blacksmith shop in an hour and called
Frank outside. The two talked together for a moment, and then the boy
called out the wonderful news that they wouldn't even have to run to the
dock; that a carriage was waiting for them!
"Something mighty funny about this!" mused Tommy. "I'd like to know who
that boy is that has such luck in Alaska! Anyone would think he owns the
town, the way things are shaping themselves here!"
A moment later a wagon drawn by a pair of sturdy horses made its
appearance in front of the old blacksmith shop, and the boys took their
seats. As they did so the sound of a pistol shot came from around the
corner and Jamison dashed into view, hatless, coatless, very red in the
face and very excited as to manner.
By his side appeared a man whom the doctor at once recognized as a
Federal officer. He came to a halt when he saw the boys in the wagon.
"Wait!" he commanded, "I have warrants for your arrest!"
CHAPTER XII
ANOTHER LOST "BULLDOG"
The step outside the cabin door halted, and the boys stood silent for a
moment, hardly knowing whether to dispute the stranger's entrance or to
admit him with a show of courtesy.
While they waited, Will glanced at the window and saw the flutter of a
white hand on the pane.
"That's the Boy Scout salute!" he said.
"Another Boy Scout?" whispered Sandy. "I wonder if it rains Boy Scouts
up here in Alaska!"
"I wish there were a thousand here!" George declared.
"I don't care how many Boy Scouts show up just now," Will argued, "but I
would like to know where they all come from!"
There now came a knock on the door and a gruff voice demanded
admittance.
"Shall I open the door?" whispered Will.
"May as well," answered George.
When the door swung open, a stout man of middle age presented himself in
the opening. After casting a keen glance about the interior he stepped
inside and closed the door.
"You boys seem to have taken possession of my home!" he said.
"We found the cabin unoccupied, and took the liberty of using it," Will
answered in a conciliatory tone.
"Oh, it's all right!" returned the other. "That's the way I took
possession of the place! I found the cabin deserted and just moved in."
"We can vacate if necessary," Will suggested.
"Oh, there's room enough for all of us, I take it!" answered the
stranger. "My name is Cameron, and I spend only a day or two here
occasionally. I was hoping when I saw your light that you were having a
midnight supper. How about something to eat?"
"There's plenty in the cabin!" George replied. "We can give you either
fish or bear steak for supper."
"Then I'm glad to find you here!" laughed the other, "for I've been
traveling all day and I'm as hungry as a wolf!"
The visitor threw himself into a chair and began a careful survey of the
interior, far more searching than the one made from the doorway.
"My name is Cameron, as I said before," he said, "and I'm prospecting
for gold."
"Prospecting for gold on a glacier?" asked Will.
"Young man," Cameron replied, "there is plenty of gold in this vicinity.
The ice brought it here. I'm being laughed at by my friends," he
continued, "because I'm searching for the mother lode. But, all the
same, I've every prospect of discovering it!"
"The mother lode in a glacier?" asked Sandy.
"It is my theory," Cameron went on, "that the range of mountains to the
north holds gold in large quantities. It is a part of my theory, too,
that the drifting ice brought tons of it down to the moraine. If I find
any gold here at all, I'll find it in quantities sufficient to clog the
money markets of the world!"
Cameron looked from face to face as he spoke, apparently anticipating a
burst of enthusiasm from his listeners.
"Up on the Yukon," he went on, "the gold was found under the ice, where
it had been deposited by glaciers which are now dead. The same
conditions exist here. For all we know, there may be tons of the
precious metal at the bottom of the first layer of ice."
"That's very true!" replied Will. "And if you don't mind, we'll stick
around a short time and see what you discover."
"Remember," Cameron said then, "that this is my claim!"
"Of course," Will answered, "we wouldn't attempt to rob you of any
legitimate discovery."
In the meantime George and Sandy were preparing a supper for the
visitor. With their heads bent low over the gasoline "plate," they
discussed the personality of the man and his theory in low conversation.
"How tall should you say that fellow was?" asked Sandy.
"About five foot six!" was the reply.
"And he's stout!"
"Decidedly so."
"And he wears a leather hunting shirt, and leather leggings, and he took
off a pair of serviceable leather gloves when he entered?"
"I see what you're getting at," George replied, "Can you see whether
there's a buckle missing from his leggings?"
"There is!" answered Sandy.
"And a patch missing from his hunting shirt?"
"Just as sure as you're a foot high!"
"Did you ever see such nerve?" whispered George. "He comes here and
steals a sick boy, and then has the nerve to return and claim the
cabin!"
"Well, I'm glad he came," Sandy whispered back. "All we've got to do now
is to play the sleuth when he leaves the cabin."
"You mean that if we follow him in his journeys over the country we'll
be apt to find Bert?" asked George.
"That's just the idea!" replied Sandy. "I wonder if his mug is sore
where Bert extracted the whiskers?"
"I wonder if he expects to get a good night's sleep, with Bert lying in
some uncomfortable hiding place?" George asked. "I'd like to poke him in
the mug, just for luck!"
"That wouldn't help us find Bert," Sandy cautioned. "We've just got to
be good to him and follow him wherever he goes."
"Watch me put him off his guard," George suggested.
"How long have you been in this neighborhood?" he asked, turning to
Cameron. "I ask," the boy continued, "because one of our chums wandered
away from the cabin while we were out fishing and hasn't returned."
Cameron's eyes sought the floor for a moment.
"I have just returned from the coast," he said, "so, unless your friend
strayed off in that direction, I wouldn't have caught sight of him. Do
you mean that he strayed away in the darkness?" he asked.
"No," replied George, "he strayed away this afternoon while temporarily
out of his mind. My friends were out fishing, and I was asleep at the
time. He received a slight wound on the head, from a fall, not long ago,
and that is probably the cause of his aberration of mind."
The boys thought they saw a sudden expression of satisfaction creep over
Cameron's face as George finished his explanation.
"If you'll serve Mr. Cameron's supper," Sandy said, giving George a sly
wink, "I'll go with Will, and we'll take different directions so as to
cover more ground. We are getting anxious about Bert."
Of course the object of the boys in leaving the cabin was to meet the
Boy Scout who had signalled to them from the window. When they turned
the corner of the cabin, they found a thin, pale lad in a torn and faded
khaki uniform leaning against the outer wall.
"Why don't you come in?" asked Will.
"Is the miner in there yet?" asked the boy.
"Yes, he says the cabin belongs to him, and he's going to remain all
night! What do you know of him?"
"Nothing at all!" replied the boy, "except that I've been following him
for half a dozen miles in the hopes that he would lead me to some place
where I could eat and sleep."
"Did you call out to him?" asked Will.
"No," was the answer. "I was afraid he would send me back if I did.
Miners in this section are not fond of leading strangers to their
claims."
"Where do you belong?" asked Sandy pointing to the Bulldog badge
displayed on the boy's ragged coat.
"Bulldog Patrol, Portland," was the reply.
"How'd you get out into this country in such a plight?" asked Will.
"My chum and I," was the reply, "started out to seek our fortunes. We
got to Katalla and couldn't get a thing to do. Sam--his name is Sam
White--insisted on remaining in town, but I made a break for the
country."
"How long since you've had anything to eat?" asked Sandy.
"About twenty-four hours," was the reply.
"Well, come on in, then, and we'll feed you up."
"Of course I'll go, now that I know that you are running the camp,"
replied the boy. "I suppose I should have gone in anyway, directly, for
just as I came up I heard the man knocking at the door. I was still
afraid I'd get kicked out if I put in an appearance at any miner's cabin
and asked for food, but I should have risked it."
"I didn't know that miners did such things," Sandy observed.
"Some of them do, and some of them don't," replied the boy.
"You haven't given us your name yet," suggested Will.
"Ed Hannon," was the reply.
"Well come on in the cabin, Ed Hannon," laughed Sandy, "and we'll fill
you up, but you mustn't say a word about having seen that miner, and if
he talks to you about the route by which you approached the cabin lie
like a thief! Which way did he come from, anyway?"
"He came from the west," was the reply. "I plumped into him not far from
one of the little rivulets which joins Copper river not very far away."
"There!" said Sandy. "Now I guess we've got something tangible."
CHAPTER XIII
THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL
When Will and Sandy entered the cabin with Ed Hannon, Cameron sprang up
to meet them. There was a show of excitement in his manner as he
exclaimed:
"So you found the lost boy, did you?"
"No," Will replied, "this is not the lost boy, but it is a lost boy!"
"Where did you come from?" asked Cameron hastily, regarding Ed with a
pair of bold, black eyes. "How long have you been in this district?"
"I came from Katalla today," answered the boy.
"Tonight, you mean," corrected Cameron.
"I started early this morning," replied Ed, "but I guess I've been
wandering around the country a good deal. It seems that I came up to the
cottage from the north."
Cameron sank back into his chair with a look of satisfaction on his
face. The boys now busied themselves getting a substantial meal for Ed,
and the boy was soon attacking a generous slice of bear steak.
If Cameron had the plans bearing the thumb marks, he was certainly the
man to keep them concealed if he believed them to be of any value
whatever to any one. If he did not have charge of the plans, then the
chances were that Vin. Chase, the crooked clerk, had them and that any
reference to them in the presence of Cameron would be communicated as
soon as possible to the actual holder.
Will was certain that Cameron was the man who had given the name of Len
Garman by Mr. Horton in the interview in which he had received his
instructions. At that time he did not believe that Cameron, or Garman,
whichever his name was, knew anything whatever of the thumb prints on
the plans.
He did believe, however, that the fellow would fight to the death for
the drawings, not because he believed them to be of value as evidence,
but because he believed them to be of great value to one in quest of
mining machinery suitable for that section of the country.
Directly Cameron began pacing to and fro in the cabin and occasionally
glancing out of the window. There were only a few stars in sight and no
moon, but for all that the fellow appeared greatly interested in the
landscape outside.
"Are you expecting some one?" Will finally asked.
"Certainly not," was the reply. "Why do you ask such a question?"
"Because you seem anxious about something."
"I am anxious about something," replied Cameron seating himself by Will
once more. "I don't like the idea of this boy coming in here with his
story of being lost on the moraine.
"You think he came here for a purpose?"
"I must say that I do!"
Will saw that Cameron was fearful that Ed had brought in a message of
some kind, and so talked to the point for some moments in the hope of
drawing the miner out. But the miner only stared at Ed with his evil
eyes and said nothing of importance.
"I know what's eating you, old fellow," Will thought to himself. "You
think that there's a gang of Boy Scouts scattered over the moraine
looking for Bert, and you're afraid they'll find him!"
Sure enough this prognostication seemed to be the true one, for directly
Cameron drew on his head net and leather gloves and walked to the door.
He paused there a moment and turned back to say to Will:
"It will soon be morning, and I desire to get to the point of my
investigation before daylight. I have been very courteously entertained
and shall return to your cabin at night, with your permission."
"I guess it's your cabin rather than mine!" replied Will with a smile.
"I think you are acting very decently about our taking possession of it.
Of course you'll always find food here as long as we remain."
With a wave of the hand at the group of boys gathered about the table,
Cameron went out and closed the door. They heard him moving heavily
along toward the east and then came silence.
"He's stopping to see if he's watched," suggested Sandy.
"He'll be watched all right!" George declared.
"But how?" asked Sandy.
"I'm the original sleuth!" George replied with a grin. "I can follow the
fellow by the sound of his footsteps, even if he is wearing moccasins!"
"Does any one doubt that Cameron is the man formerly known as Len
Garman?" asked Will.
The boys all shook their heads, but Ed turned an inquiring face toward
the speaker.
"He gave the name of Cameron here, did he?" he asked.
Will nodded.
"Well, that isn't the name I heard him called by at Katalla," Ed
declared.
"So you saw him at Katalla, did you?" asked Sandy.
"Yes, I saw him at Katalla two days ago. He seemed to have a lot of
business with a young fellow who appeared to be a stranger in the town."
"What name did he give there?"
"Brooks!" replied Ed.
"Well, we mustn't stand here chinning while the fellow is getting out of
sight," suggested George. "I'm going to take after him right now!"
"Wait," Sandy suggested, "and I'll go with you."
"Do you think he will go straight to Bert?" asked Will.
"I have no doubt of it!" was the reply.
"It's just this way," George went on, "Cameron is suspicious that a
great effort is being made to discover the whereabouts of the kidnapped
boy, and he can't rest easy until he knows that he is safe. Besides, the
fellow would like to know whether Bert had regained consciousness."
"Yes, I presume he is anxious to learn what the code despatch he stole
contains," Will answered.
"There was some talk," Sandy said, directly, "about Bert regaining
consciousness before he left the cabin. Do you think that possible?"
"No, I don't!" replied George. "I should have heard a struggle had
anything of the kind taken place. The fact of the matter is," the boy
went on, "that Cameron thinks some one is after the drawings he values
so greatly. He found Bert here with the code message and naturally
concluded that the cipher referred in some way to his plans."
"Well, come on, then," Sandy urged. "We'll have to be moving if we
follow Cameron. I think we've talked too long already."
"Don't you worry about that," Will declared. "Cameron will hang around
the cabin for half an hour or more in order to see if any one leaves.
Before any one goes out, we'll turn off the light and make a noise like
going to sleep. Then, when all is good and dark, you two can slip out
and locate the miner if you can."
"Locate him?" repeated Sandy. "We've got to locate him. He'll go
straight to Bert and that's exactly where we want to go."
The boys made a great commotion in the cabin as if preparing for bed,
and finally the lamp was extinguished, leaving the room in complete
darkness.
"Now, be careful when you open the door," whispered Will.
For a wonder the door opened noiselessly on its hinges, and was closed
without the slightest jar. Directly Will heard a soft tap at the window
and pressed his face against the pane.
"Cameron is still in sight," Sandy's voice said, "and not very far away.
He seems to be satisfied that we've all gone to bed, and is heading for
the west. Looks like he was following the trail we followed when we went
out after fish."
"Go to it, then," Will said. "Don't expose yourselves by being too rash,
and don't come back in the morning without bringing Bert with you."
"You watch me!" Sandy replied, and then he was gone.
CHAPTER XIV
THE LAD WITH THE "DRAG"
When the federal officer appeared in front of the spirited team,
announcing that he had a warrant for the arrest of the boys, Tommy and
Sam both whispered to the driver to cut loose with the whip.
"Run him down!" Tommy insisted.
"Jump the rig over him!" Sam advised.
The doctor, however, stretched forth a detaining hand and the driver
held in the horses.
"That's right!" Frank exclaimed.
"You mustn't get into any quarrel with the officers," Dr. Pelton
suggested. "We can soon settle this matter."
"Je-rusalem!" exclaimed Tommy. "Here we've been hanging around an old
blacksmith shop all day, and skulking through the streets, and not
getting half enough to eat, only to get pinched at the last minute! If I
had my way, I'd bump that officer on the coco and make for the landing.
We can't stay in this blooming little burg all the rest of our natural
lives. Will will be anxious."
"Now don't get excited!" laughed Frank. "We'll get out in, a few
minutes, all right."
"If it was so easy to get out in a few minutes," argued Tommy, "why
didn't you get out hours ago?"
Frank only laughed as the impatient question and sprang out of the
carriage. The doctor alighted, too, and they both stood for a moment in
close consultation with the officer.
Jamison, who was now very drunk, stood weaving about in the street,
demanding that all the boys, and the doctor, and the driver of the
carriage, be thrown into jail on a charge of piracy.
"Don't you think," Frank suggested to the officer, "that this man is too
drunk to be out on the street?"
"Why, of course he is," replied the officer beckoning to an associate
who stood watching the group from the next corner.
When the associate came up, Jamison was ordered under arrest, and was
taken away with many threats and exclamations of rage.
"I don't like this man Jamison any better than you do," the officer
said, speaking to Frank and Dr. Pelton, "but the case did look rather
bad for the boys, and I had to do something."
"He collected three hundred dollars of me, for a trip to and from
Cordova," Frank explained, "and then tried to maroon us on one of the
Barren islands. There's a member of his crew back here in the blacksmith
shop who will tell you the same story."
"So you paid him three hundred dollars, did you?" asked the officer.
"Yes, sir," answered the boy.
"And you have proof that he tried to maroon you?"
"Yes, sir!"
"And you took the boat only to enforce the contract you had made?"
"That's the idea!" replied Frank.
"Then I'm not going to bother with the case at all!" replied the
officer. "If you had come to me with this story the minute Jamison began
to rave about arrest, you wouldn't have been put to all this
inconvenience."
"I think," grinned Frank, "that Jamison ought to pay us back the three
hundred dollars, because he never brought us to Cordova at all, and even
if he had, he wouldn't have earned the money until he returned us to
Katalla. He ought not to keep the money."
"That's a fact!" exclaimed the officer with a smile at the boy. "I'll go
down to the jail and make him give it back."
The officer started away, and Tommy and Sam sat in the carriage
regarding Frank with wide open eyes.
"Say, who is that kid?" Tommy asked.
"I don't know," replied Sam.
"Did you notice that any time he said anything to the officer that the
officer just fell right in with his ideas?"
"Sure I did," was the reply.
"And did you notice how the doctor paid special attention to every
remark he made?"
"I couldn't help but notice it," was the reply.
"Well, that kid's got these fellows up here buffaloed all right," Tommy
declared. "And that being the case, I wonder why he didn't use some of
his influence hours ago and get us started on the road to Katalla."
"I give it up!" Sam replied.
Frank and the doctor stood talking together for a few moments, and then
the federal officer returned and handed two hundred dollars in bank
notes over to Frank.
"Jamison thinks he ought to have a hundred dollars because he paid the
tug for bringing him and his crew in," the officer said, "and because
he's going to let you run his motor boat up to Katalla."
"What do you know about that?" whispered Sam.
"I'll bet that boy's father is president of the United States," replied
Tommy. "Or he may be king of England."
"Whoever he is, he's got a pull," replied Sam.
"Drag!" exclaimed Tommy. "Whenever a man's got a dead sure cinch like
that, it's a drag and not a pull!"
"Well," the doctor said, "we're losing time! We may as well go to the
wireless office and get our code message. I presume it's ready for
delivery by this time."
"It's about time we were thinking about that boy with his head in a
sling, too!" Tommy suggested.
"It won't take us long to get there now," Doctor Pelton remarked.
The Gulf of Alaska was remarkably smooth, when the vicious habits of
that body of water are taken into consideration, and the boys made the
run to Katalla without accident in little less than three hours,
arriving at the floating dock with the sun still more than three hours
in the sky.
"Now for the rotten part of the journey," Tommy suggested. "If we hadn't
had to wait for the wireless after we landed at the dock we should have
arrived here in time to reach the cabin before dark."
"Who's got the wireless?" asked Sam.
"Frank's got it tucked away under his uniform!" laughed Doctor Pelton.
"He wouldn't even let me take a look at the envelope!"
"Do you know what's in it, Frank?" asked Tommy.
"Sure I do," was the reply.
"Then, what's all this mystery about? Why don't you pass the information
around?" demanded Tommy impatiently.
"All in good time!" laughed the boy.
"I don't see any use of all this mystery!" Tommy grumbled, turning to
Sam, "I get shut out of the inside features of every game I'm in!"
"Now, how do we get to the cabin?" asked the doctor.
"Walk, I suppose," grumbled Tommy. "It's only about fourteen or fifteen
miles, and the country between the two points is mostly on end. We ought
to get there by an hour or two after midnight, if we don't stop to play
marbles on the way."
"If you will all wait here a few moments," Frank said, "I'll go and see
what I can do in the shape of a rig."
"A rig!" repeated Tommy. "Fat lot of fun you'd have driving a rig over
that moraine!"
"Of course we can't drive clear to the cabin," Frank replied, "but we
can get quite along way from the coast if we have a strong team and a
good wagon!"
"Yes, I remember smooth country somewhere on the route," replied Tommy.
"But even at best," Frank explained, "we shall have to walk five or six
miles, so we may as well be getting busy."
In a very few minutes Frank returned with a pair of strong horses and
wagon more desirable for its strength than its comfort.
"Where'd you find it?" asked Tommy.
"Sent a wireless ahead asking for it!" replied Frank.
"I wish you'd send a wireless over to the cabin," Tommy grinned, "and
ask the boys to have supper all ready when we get there, and you might
suggest that Sandy and George meet us a half a mile this side with a pie
under each arm."
"I believe if that kid should ask to have some one dip him a blue blazer
out of an ice cold spring it would be done," Sam whispered to Tommy, as
the party clambered into the wagon.
"He's certainly got a drag somewhere!" replied Tommy.
"Things are running pretty smoothly boys," suggested Doctor Pelton as
the straggling buildings of the coast town disappeared from view.
"They're running too smoothly!" exclaimed Tommy. "First thing we know,
there'll be a cylinder head blowing out, or a volcanic eruption, or
something of that kind. We've been having things altogether too easy
ever since we landed at Cordova."
"Just listen a moment," Frank said, "I guess there's something going to
happen, right now!"
There came a long, low rumbling sound, apparently moving from east to
west, followed by a tipping of the moraine which almost brought the
horses to their knees.
"It would never answer," Tommy grumbled, "for us to make a trip to
Alaska without bunting into a glacier ready to smash up things!"
"That's not a glacial slide!" Frank said. "It's an earthquake!"
CHAPTER XV
A BREAK IN THE GLACIER
"An earthquake?" repeated Tommy. "I thought they never had earthquakes
in Alaska any more!"
"There are few weeks when there are no earthquakes!" was the reply.
"Well, when's it going to stop quaking?" asked Sam, springing out of the
wagon. "It seems to me that we're getting a sleigh ride!"
The others followed his example, and stood in a moment within fifty feet
of a slowly widening chasm which seemed to run from east to west across
the entire moraine. They had just reached the timber line when the
disturbance began, and now they saw trees a hundred feet in height and
from six to eight inches in diameter dropping like matches into the
great opening in the earth.
"Gee!" exclaimed Tommy. "The breath of the earthquake is enough to
freeze one! I wish I had a couple of fur coats!"
The boy expressed the situation very accurately, for the opening of the
moraine revealed the mighty mass of ice which lay under it. The glacier
which had lain dead under the mat of vegetation for how many hundred
years no one would ever know, showed far down in the great cavern, and a
gust of wind sighing through the ragged jaws laid a chill over the
little party.
Slowly the chasm widened. The ground under the boys' feet seemed to be
unsteady. With a swaying motion it dropped off toward the coast, except
at the very edge of the cavern, which seemed to be doubling down like a
lip folded inside the mouth.
"It strikes me," Frank said, "that we would better be getting the team
out of the track of that chasm! If we don't, the horses and wagon will
take a drop."
Tommy and Sam both sprang forward, but it was too late! The southern
line of the chasm seemed, to drop away for fifty feet or more, and trees
and rocks crashed into the opening. The horses and the wagon went down
with the rest. The screams of the frightened horses cut the air for an
instant, and then all was silent.
"Rotten!" cried Tommy.
"Fierce!" shouted Sam.
"Awful!" declared Doctor Pelton.
Frank stood looking at the ever-widening chasm for a moment and then
faced toward the coast.
"We'll have to walk around it now, I'm thinking," Tommy said, in a
moment. "And a nice job we've got!"
As far as the eye could see the chasm extended, now growing in size, now
contracting. A pale blue mist rose out of the opening, and the air was
that of an August day no longer.
The sliding motion continued, and the chasm increased its width.
"Will it never stop?" asked Sam, almost thrown to the ground by a quick
convulsion of the surface.
"Not just yet!" replied the Doctor gravely. "I can tell you in a moment
just what has taken place. The weight of soil and timber on top of the
dead glacier is shifting. The volcanic action tipped the moraine to the
south and it broke, opening the way to the ice below. There is no
knowing how serious the break may be. For all we know, the upheaval may
send this whole moraine into the Gulf of Alaska."
"That's a cheerful proposition, too!" Tommy exclaimed.
"I wish I could get close enough to the chasm to look down," Sam
observed. "I'll bet it's a thousand feet!"
"You'd better not try that!" advised Frank.
"The question before the house at the present moment," the doctor said,
"is how I am going to get to my patient."
"Can't we get across this little crack in the earth?" asked Sam.
"That depends on the length of it!" answered Frank. "If the Doctor's
theory is correct, this whole point has cracked away from the glacier
above. In that case, we may be obliged to in some way work ourselves to
the bottom of the chasm and up on the other side."
"We never can do that!" Sam insisted.
"Alaska is full of just such gorges as this one," Frank explained. "The
whole country is resting on an icy foundation, and earthquakes find
congenial conditions when it comes to cracking the crust. We don't know
how long this chasm is, but the chances are that it isn't as long now as
it will be!"
"Yes," agreed the doctor. "The chances are that the chasm started here
today will continue to grow in length until it cuts across the point of
land between Controller bay and the Bering glacier. I have known chasms
of this character to travel fifty miles in a night, and I have known
them to walk with such dignity that it took them ten years to go ten
miles."
"But there must be some way of getting across it!" exclaimed Tommy.
"Everything has been going all right up to now, and we're not going to
be kept away from the cabin by any such playful little earthquake as
this!"
"We'll do the best we can," Frank said gravely.
The boys turned to the east and west and traversed the line of the chasm
for long distances. In places the width was not more than thirty feet.
In others it was at least a hundred. Occasionally the walls of soil and
ice sloped down at an angle of forty degrees, in other places the wall
was vertical.
Within an hour the sound of running water was plainly heard, and the
boys understood that the convulsion of nature had opened a reservoir
somewhere in the glacier, and that the long chasm would soon become a
rushing torrent. The prospect was discouraging.
"I wish we had an airship!" suggested Tommy, as they came back to the
starting place, a few minutes before the night closed down upon the
moraine. "It's provoking to think that we can't get across a little
chasm not any wider than a street in old Chicago!"
"I think I could get along very well with a derrick!" said Sam.
After a long conference, it was decided to keep to the west and endeavor
to pass around the chasm in that direction.
"We certainly can't remain here inactive," the doctor argued. "We've got
to go one way or the other, and I think the chances are better toward
the west!"
"It will soon be good and dark," cried Tommy, "and then we'll have to
make some kind of a camp for the night."
"I've got a searchlight with me," suggested Frank.
"So've I," answered Tommy.
"I'll tell you one thing we forgot," Sam cut in. "You didn't make
Jamison give up your automatics!"
"Don't you ever think we didn't," Tommy answered. "That is," he
continued, "the officer made him give them up. At least he brought them
back when he came from the jail!"
"Seems to me," Tommy added, looking at Frank critically, "that you've
got some kind of a drag with the people at Cordova."
"Never mind that now," Frank replied. "What we need now is some kind of
a drag to get us across this chasm."
The electrics illuminated only a narrow path, but the boys and the
doctor made fairly good time as they advanced toward the west.
After walking at least a mile and finding no narrowing in the surface
opening, the boys stopped once more for consultation.
While they stood on the edge of the chasm considering the situation, a
bright blaze leaped up some distance to the north.
"Some one's burning green boughs!" exclaimed Tommy.
"How do you know that?" asked Sam.
"Look at the white smoke!" answered Tommy. "I guess if you had made and
answered as many Boy Scout smoke signals as I have, you'd know how to
make a smudge."
"It's so bloomin' dark I couldn't tell whether the smoke is while or
black!" declared Sam. "I can see only the bulk of it."
"If it was good and black," Tommy answered, "we couldn't see it so
plainly. And, come to think about it," he added, laying a hand excitedly
on Frank's shoulder, "there are two columns of smoke."
"I see the two now," Frank answered. "One column has just begun to show.
You know what that means, of course!"
"It means a Boy Scout signal for assistance," replied Tommy.
Doctor Pelton turned to the boys with an anxious face.
"Do you really mean that?" he asked.
"Sure we do!" replied Tommy. "Two columns of smoke ask for help."
"Then there must be Boy Scouts in trouble on the other side of the
chasm!" the doctor concluded.
"That's about the size of it!" Frank exclaimed.
"Look here," Tommy declared, "we've just got to get across that crack! I
wonder if it would be possible to find walls so slanting that we could
pass down this side and up the other."
"Well, even if we did," Sam argued, "there's a rush of water at the
bottom. I don't see how we could get across that."
"I know how we can get across it if we find the walls accommodating,"
Tommy exclaimed. "You saw how the trees tumbled into the chasm, didn't
you? Well, if we can find a place where the moraine was heavily wooded,
we'll find a bridge of tree trunks across any water there may be at the
bottom! And the bridge may not be very far down, either!"
"Great head, little man!" laughed Frank.
"You ought to consider the matter very seriously before entering the
chasm at all," suggested the doctor. "Remember that it is uncertain as
to size and that the walls are liable to crumble."
"But see here," exclaimed Tommy, "there's a Boy Scout signal for help on
the other side, and we've just got to get across! For all we know, the
cabin may have been wrecked by the earthquake, and the boys may have
been injured in some way!"
"I'm game to go!" shouted Sam.
"Of course I'll go with you," the doctor went on. "In fact, I am
satisfied that you are doing the right thing in making the attempt to
cross. I only uttered a warning which we must all heed whenever we come
to a place where a crossing seems possible."
The boys soon discovered a place where the walls did not appear to be
very steep and where the mass of trees which had fallen completely
covered the bottom. Then, cautiously feeling their way, they crept down.
CHAPTER XVI
GEORGE AND SANDY CAUGHT
When George and Sandy left the cabin they saw the figure of the miner
very dimly outlined away to the west.
"We ought to get closer," Sandy whispered. "First thing we know, he'll
duck down into some hollow, and that'll be the last of him for the
night. I guess we can creep up without his catching us at it."
"Of course we can!" replied George. "He's making so much noise himself
that he can't hear us! He wouldn't make much of a Boy Scout when it came
to stalking, would he?"
The boys succeeded in getting pretty close to the miner; so close in
fact, that occasionally they heard him muttering to himself as he
stumbled over rocks and occasionally became entangled in such underbrush
as grew along the top of the moraine.
"We can't be very far away from the place where the bear tried to beat
me up," Sandy whispered, as they drew up for a moment. "I wouldn't mind
having a bite out of that same bear just about now!"
After a time they came to the head waters of the creek in which Will and
Sandy had fished, and saw Cameron standing on the other side.
"He's going into the mountains!" whispered Sandy.
"That's exactly where he's keeping Bert," George agreed.
In a short time Cameron paused in his walk and uttered a low whistle.
"What do you think of that?" asked Sandy. "He's going to meet some one
here. And that means," the boy went on, "that he's had a pal watching
Bert while he's been away."
"And it also means," George added, "that we can't be very far from the
spot where Bert is concealed. I hope so, anyway, for I'm about tired
enough to crawl into my little nest in the cabin."
"I should think you'd talk about sleep!" scoffed Sandy. "You slept all
the afternoon!"
"If you mention that long sleep of mine again," George said
half-angrily, "I'll tip you over into the creek. I'm sore over that
myself!"
While the boys stood waiting end listening an answering whistle came
from the side of a mountain not far from the rivulet.
"There's his chum!" whispered Sandy. "If we get up nearer, we may be
able to hear what they say."
The boys crept along under the dim light of the infrequent stars, and
finally crouched down behind an angle of rock which was not more than
twenty feet removed from where Cameron stood.
They had hardly taken their position when a second figure made its
appearance. The two stood talking together in whispers for a short time
and then started to walk away.
"There's something doing, all right!" exclaimed Sandy.
"Yes, indeed, there is!" agreed George. "They wouldn't come out into
such a hole as this after midnight to tell each other what good fellows
they are, or anything like that."
"I'm getting suspicious!" Sandy chuckled.
"Why suspicious?"
"Because those fellows whispered!"
"I see the point," replied George. "From our standpoint those fellows
were all alone here in one of the wild places of Alaska, yet they drew
close together and whispered when they communicated with each other!"
"They wouldn't do that," urged Tommy, "unless they were afraid of being
overheard. It shows that they believe some one to be watching them."
The two men were now moving quite swiftly up the slope of the mountain.
At times they were entirely hidden by the luxuriant growths, and at
times they came out on little bald spots where rock outcropped to the
exclusion of vegetation. The boys followed on into the thickets, pausing
now and then to listen for the sounds of the advance of the others.
Presently they came to a shelf of rock which overlooked the valley of
the rivulet. They paused for a moment to listen for the sounds of those
in advance when a strong electric searchlight was thrown on their faces
and they saw the grim, round barrel of an automatic pointing at their
breasts.
"You may as well hand over your automatics, boys!" Cameron said.
"And be quick about it, too."
This last sentence came from a thin, cadaverous looking fellow whose
face was only half revealed through the meshes of the head net.
There was nothing for the boys to do but to pass over their revolvers.
Their searchlights were also taken from them, and then their hands were
tied tightly behind their backs.
"Did you have a pleasant tramp through the woods?" asked Cameron.
"Say," growled Sandy, "if you'll just turn my hands loose, I'll give you
a poke in the jaw!"
"That wouldn't be polite!" sneered Cameron.
"Don't take any lip from the young imps," snarled the other. "They've
given us enough trouble already!"
"You're a foxy old gink!" exclaimed Sandy. "I wish I had you on South
Clark street, Chicago, for a few minutes!"
"So that's why you came to the cabin is it?" asked George.
"Certainly," replied Cameron. "I had an idea that you'd follow me away!
You see I figured it out exactly right!"
"Why did you want to make trouble for us?" asked Sandy.
"Because you're too smart!" answered Cameron.
"What do you mean by that?"
"When you sat sizing me up in the cabin while I was eating supper,"
Cameron went on, "you informed me as plainly as words could have done
that you knew me to be the man who had abducted your friend."
"You didn't show that you knew," George suggested.
"I tried not to show that I knew," answered the other.
"What'd you steal Bert for?" asked Sandy.
"I needed him in my business," answered Cameron.
"Come, don't stand here all night talking with the little gutter-snipes!"
exclaimed Cameron's companion. "We've got work to do!"
"March along, then, boys!" Cameron ordered.
The lads were now pushed forward into a cavern which opened on the shelf
of rock where they had been taken prisoners. The opening in the mountain
side seemed to be of considerable size, for the boys passed from an
outer chamber of fair dimensions to two smaller ones further in.
In the last of these chambers, on a huddle of blankets, lay the boy for
whom they had been searching.
"Is he dead?" asked Sandy.
"No such luck," snarled Cameron.
"If you'll untie my hands, I'll look after him," George said.
The bonds were cut and George bent over the still figure.
"Has he regained consciousness at all?" he asked.
Cameron turned to his companion.
"Tell them, Fenton," he said, "whether the lad woke up during my
absence. You were here all the time?" he added.
"Yes, I was here all the time!" answered Fenton. "And the lad never
opened his eyes once. That was a deuce of a blow you gave him, Cameron!"
"And what did you gain by it?" demanded Sandy.
"We'll show you directly what we gained by it!" Cameron answered.
Seeing a bucket of water at one side of the cavern, George carried it
over to the heap of blankets where the boy lay and began bathing his
forehead and wrists. The boy groaned feebly but did not speak.
"What did you hit him with?" asked George angrily.
"The handle of my gun!" was the sullen reply.
"Why?" asked Sandy.
"Because I wanted to get a paper he had."
"Well, you got it, didn't you?" asked the boy.
"Yes, I got it!"
"And much good it did you, too!" said George angrily.
"Look here!" Cameron almost shouted, "can either one of you boys read
that code despatch?"
George shook his head.
"Is there any one at the cabin who can read it?"
"I have never known of any member of the party reading the cipher,"
replied George. "I never have seen a code despatch before."
"You are lying to me!" shouted Cameron. "The boy to whom the despatch
was addressed can certainly read it! Which one of you bears the name of
Will Smith? Don't lie to me now!"
"Will Smith is at the cabin!" replied Sandy.
"Just my luck!" shouted Cameron.
"What do you want to know about the code despatch?" asked Sandy.
"I want to know what it contains. And what is more, I'm going to know,
too! I want one of you boys to write a note to this Will Smith and get
him to come here to this cave."
"Not for mine!" exclaimed Sandy.
George made no verbal reply, but the expression of his face showed that
he had no intention of doing anything of the kind.
"It will be the worse for you if you don't!" shouted Cameron.
"Oh, you've got the top hand for a few minutes now," Sandy said,
tauntingly, "but you'll soon find out that you're not the only man in
the world that's got a gun!"
This last as Cameron flourished an automatic in his hand.
"You'll write the note, or you'll starve to death!" replied Fenton.
"Then we'll starve!" answered George.
"No, we won't starve!" declared Sandy. "We'll get the best of you
outlaws in some shape, and give you a beating up that will put you in
the hospital for six months!"
Fenton raised his fist as if to strike the speaker, but Cameron caught
his arm.
"Not now," he said. "Wait until all other plans have been tried."
"We have other work to do at this time, anyway," Fenton said, with a
scowl, "so we'll just lock the door on these young gutter-snipes and
leave them to think the matter over!"
The men passed out of the small cavern, but before they left the outer
one, they rolled a great stone into the opening they had just passed
through and blocked it firmly on the outer side.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MORSE CODE
"And this," said Sandy, as the great stone began to render the
atmosphere of the place close and unpleasant, "is what I call a fine
little Boy Scout excursion! Did they leave one of the searchlights?"
"Not intentionally," replied George, "but I swiped one!"
"Well, we mustn't show a light until they get some distance away!"
advised Sandy. "We don't want them to know that we have it."
"And we'll need it badly," George suggested, "if we're to give Bert any
attention! I wonder if the poor boy has had any care since he's been
here! It doesn't seem to me that they would be heartless enough to leave
him here in an unconscious condition very long!"
"You can never tell what such fellows'll do," Sandy observed.
The boys remained silent for a long time, each one busy with his own
thoughts. After what seemed an aeon, they saw that it was daylight
outside. Then they turned on their electric and made an examination of
their wounded chum.
They found that the bandage on his head had been changed, and that his
pulse was not so high as when he had been discovered in an unconscious
condition at the cabin.
"I guess they've done the best they could," Sandy observed, "and I'm
much obliged to them for that! Have you got anything to eat?"
"Now, look here, Sandy," George replied whimsically, "have you any idea
that I'd ever go away with you without taking something to eat? You got
up from the table one minute and demand something to masticate the next!
You're about the most regular boy at your meals I over knew. What'll you
have now, pie or cake?"
"Pie!" laughed Sandy.
"Well, you get a bear sandwich!" replied George. "I've got four great
big thick ones wrapped up in paper and stowed away in my pockets. If
those ginks had suspected anything of the kind, they would have taken
them away from me. They're a bum lot, those men!"
"Produce one of the sandwiches!" demanded Sandy. "They named me Sandy at
first because I'm such a hand for sandwiches!"
George brought forth two great slices of bread and about a pound of
fried bear meat. Sandy's eyes sparkled at the sight.
"We'll have one apiece now," George suggested, "and one apiece tonight.
But every time they come near the cave, we'll tell them how hungry we
are. That will make them think we're suffering."
"You don't think we're going to stay here till night, do you?" demanded
Sandy munching away at his meat.
"I hope not," answered George.
"I wonder if Bert's had anything to eat since he got the wallop on the
coco?" asked Sandy. "Suppose we mince some of this meat up very fine and
feed it to him. He may not know when he swallows it, but it will give
him strength just the same."
The suggested plan was followed, and Bert was given quite a quantity of
the tender meat. At first it was necessary to pass it down his throat
with draughts of water, but later, much to the surprise and joy of the
boys, he began, to swallow naturally.
"He's coming back to life!" shouted Sandy. "A boy's all right as soon as
he begins to eat! Sprinkle some water in his face and we'll see what
effect that has."
The boys were so pleased that they almost cheered with delight when at
length Bert opened his eyes and looked about.
"Time to get up?" he asked.
"Naw," replied Sandy. "Go to sleep again!"
"That you, Sandy?" asked Bert.
"That's Sandy all right!" replied the boy.
"Why don't you open a door or window and let in some air?" asked Bert.
"Aw, go to sleep!" advised Sandy.
"Nice old dive you've got here!" Bert went on. "Here I've walked about
nineteen thousand miles to find a boy named Sandy and a boy named Will,
and a boy named Tommy, and a boy named George, and when I find them they
shut me up in a rotten old morgue."
"How'd you come to ask for Sandy?" demanded the boy.
"The name struck me as being funny!" was the reply. "Where are the
others? Are you here alone?"
"George is over there on the floor," replied Sandy. "Ring off, now, and
go to sleep! You're in no shape to talk."
"I remember something about getting a dip on the head," Bert said in a
moment, evidently after long cogitation. "What was there about it?"
"You got it!" replied Sandy. "Go to sleep!"
"If you'll give me some more of that meat, I'll go to sleep!"
George pushed forward about half of one of the sandwiches and the boy
began eating it greedily. In a moment, however, his arm dropped to his
side and he appeared to be unconscious again.
"He's too weak to go at the grub like that," George advised, turning on
the light. "We'll have to be careful!"
But Bert was not unconscious again. He was only sleeping.
"I'd like to know what brought him out of that trance," remarked George
as the boys sat regarding the youngster with inquiring eyes.
"I don't know any more about it than you do," answered Sandy, "but, if
you'll leave it to me, setting the stomach to work put the blood in
circulation, and that swept the cobwebs out of his brain."
"Sounds all right, but I don't believe it!" replied George.
The day passed slowly. Bert slept continuously until George's watch told
him that it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. Then he opened his
eyes for a few moments, finished the rest of the sandwich and went to
sleep again.
"Weak as a cat!" exclaimed Sandy.
The boy had scarcely closed his eyes when Cameron's voice was heard at
the entrance.
"Are you boys ready to write that note?" he asked.
"Come in here a minute," requested Sandy. "I want to get a good poke at
that ugly mug of yours!"
"You won't feel quite so lively after going hungry for a day or two,"
sneered Cameron. "You needn't mind about the letter, anyway," he added.
"I have information that there's a boy coming in from Cordova who can
read the code despatch and we're laying for him now."
"I don't want to seem to be irreligious," Sandy replied, "but I beg
leave to state that if I owed the devil a debt of a thousand of the
greatest liars on earth and he wouldn't take you and call the debt
square, I'd cheat him out of it! Your fabrications are too cheap!"
"Don't get fresh now," advised Cameron. "If you do, I'll come in there
and take it out of your hide!"
"Come on in!" urged Sandy. "I'd just like to get a good crack at your
crust! I think I could fix you up in about five minutes so you'd want to
lie in bed for about five months!"
"Aw, what's the good of stirring him up!" whispered George.
"I want to get him so mad that he'll say something that he wouldn't say
if he wasn't angry!" replied Sandy. "What's your idea about this boy
coming in, anyway? Do you believe it?"
"No!" was the reply. "There isn't any one to come in. And even if there
was, there is no way in which he could be notified that he was coming!
So you see, he's just lying for the fun of it!"
"Well, I'm sorry, boys," Cameron observed, "that you won't take
advantage of the offer I'm making you. I brought a basket of provisions
with me, and you might be having a square meal in five minutes if you'd
only do what I ask you to do."
"I thought you didn't want the letter now!" scoffed Sandy.
"Oh, I'll get it all right whether you write it or not!" answered
Cameron. "But if you have anything to say to me, you'd better say it
now, because you won't see me again until tomorrow morning. I've just
come from the cabin, and the boys there are about wild over your
disappearance. I explained that I found your hats not far from a piece
of torn and bloody turf, and that seemed to make them feel worse than
ever."
"Oh, they're on to you all right!" replied Sandy. "You can't make
anything stick with them. They know that you're the outlaw who stole
Bert, and they know that you haven't any more right to the cabin than
they have. You'll go sticking your nose around that domicile some time
and get it knocked off! It's a two to one bet right now that they know
that you've caught George and I in some kind of a trap."
"Let him alone," advised George. "What's the use of starting anything?
He can make us trouble if he wants to!"
"Run along now," continued Sandy. "We were having a quiet little snooze
when you butted in. It's all right this time, but don't you ever do it
again. Here's hoping you remain away until morning!"
Cameron was heard to pass through the outer caverns and all was still,
about the place. Notwithstanding the assumed lightheartedness of the
boys, they realized that they were in a serious situation.
"I'm going to dig this stone out!" declared Sandy shortly after the
departure of the miner. "I believe we can move this beautiful door if we
go at it right. Come on and help me push."
The boys pushed with all their might, but the stone was firmly blocked
on the outside, and could not be moved.
"It's after five o'clock," George said looking at his watch, "and if we
do anything tonight, we'll have to do it right away. What time did Tommy
say he would be back with the doctor?"
"There was some talk about his being back early in the evening," replied
Sandy. "And that gives me an idea!" the boy continued.
"Pass it out!" said George.
"First," Sandy said, hesitatingly, "let me ask a question. Do you know
how the boys are going to get in from the coast? What I mean is, have
you any idea which way they will take on leaving Katalla?"
"That's all a guess," replied George.
"They may come this way, though," suggested Sandy.
"Yes, if they keep straight to the north until they strike the valley of
this little creek and then turn east to the cabin, they'll be apt to
pass this way."
"Here's hoping they do," Sandy said fervently.
"I don't see how that will help," George complained. "We're shut up in a
hole, and might yell for a thousand years without being heard."
"Just you wait a minute," Sandy advised. "Let me see that searchlight of
yours. Have you the red and blue caps with you?"
"They're right at the end," replied George. "Just unscrew that cover and
take them out. I thought you knew where to find everything connected
with an electric searchlight!"
Sandy unscrewed the false cover at the end of the battery case and
brought forth two celluloid caps; one blue, and one red.
"It's been so long since we've used these Boy Scout signals," he add,
"that I've almost forgotten which color we use for the dash and which
for the dot when we signal in the Morse code."
"The red is the dash," explained. George. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to hoist a signal of distress," laughed Sandy.
"Expect it to show through the rocks?"
"I guess it'll show out of any opening we can look out of!" exclaimed
Sandy. "I'm going to put on the red cap and set the light where it'll
shine through the two outer caverns. If any of the boys come within
sight of it, they'll understand the scrape we're in."
"Great head!" exclaimed George. "The boys will be coming back from
Katalla before long, and Will and Ed will naturally be searching for us,
so we're pretty sure to have the signal seen and answered before
morning!"
"That's our only hope!" replied Sandy. "Unless our Boy Scout signal
brings one party or the other, we're likely to starve to death in this
rotten old cavern. Let's see how it works," the boy went on, screwing
the red celluloid cap firmly over the eye of the electric.
After seeing that everything was in order, he switched to the blue cap.
In both cases the light worked perfectly.
"There you are!" he said with a chuckle. "If one of the boys sees the
red light, he'll read it for a Morse dash and if he sees the blue light,
he'll read it for a Morse dot!"
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ROCKS TUMBLE DOWN
After the departure of George and Sandy from the cabin, Will and Ed
decided that the best thing they could do would be to go to bed. They
had been without sleep for many hours, and were thoroughly exhausted.
"I am anxious to know what success George and Sandy have in chasing
Cameron," Will said, as he disrobed in the dark and tumbled into his
bunk, "but I don't see how we can help matters any by sitting up."
No answer came from the bunk occupied by Ed save a prolonged snore, and
Will knew that his companion was already in the land of dreams.
When Will awoke it was broad daylight and the sun was high in the
heavens. Looking at his watch, he was surprised to see that it was after
twelve o'clock. In a moment, he heard Ed stirring in his bunk, and then
the boy sat up, rubbing a pair of sleepy eyes.
"That was a corker!" Will exclaimed.
"Have any of the boys returned?" asked Ed.
"Oh, they're back before this, of course," Will answered. "They've
probably gone outside in order to give us a chance to sleep!"
"I don't see any indications of their presence," Ed said. "Everything
looks exactly as it did when we went to bed last night."
Will, after arranging his head net, and drawing on a pair of gloves,
opened the door and cast an anxious glance over the landscape.
"They haven't been out here!" he said. "What do you think it means?"
"It means that they're giving that fat miner along chase!" answered Ed.
"I'm afraid they're in some trouble," replied Will apprehensively.
"Suppose I look for them while you get breakfast," suggested Ed.
"Good idea," replied Will "I'll get pancakes and coffee and eggs for
breakfast and then, after we eat, we'll both go out and look for the
boys. I'm afraid they've been led into a trap!"
"How about leaving the cabin alone?" asked Ed.
"The cabin can go hang!" answered Will.
Ed returned in half an hour and reported that no trace of the lost lads
had been discovered. The boys then ate breakfast and started away.
"Which way did they go?" asked Ed.
"Sandy said they were headed to the west."
"Then to the west we go," Ed exclaimed, darting forward in advance.
The boys searched patiently until five o'clock without discovering any
trace of the missing lads. Then, they returned to the cabin and prepared
supper. As they came within sight of the cabin they saw a stout figure
dodging away into the grove of trees to the east.
"That's that sneak of a Cameron," Will said. "If he keeps shoving his
ugly nose into our business, I'll ornament it with lead!"
After supper the boys loaded their pockets with sandwiches and a bottle
of cold coffee and set forth again.
"I don't think we went far enough to the west," Will said, as they made
their way over the moraine. "You remember the line of hills across the
little creek? Well, I have an idea that if the boys have been captured
they have been taken there."
"And if Bert has been hidden away anywhere in this vicinity," Ed
answered, "he is there, too! In fact," the boy added, "it is my belief
that if the miner is responsible for the disappearance of George and
Sandy the three boys will be found together somewhere!"
"You are probably right!" Will agreed. "The miner and his gang wouldn't
care about watching two separate points."
"I don't think they'd be apt to murder the boys, do you?" asked Ed.
"No, I don't think they would," Will replied. "Outlaws of the Cameron
stamp resort to all sorts of tricks and crimes, but they usually fight
shy of murder. I'm afraid, however, that the boys will be starved or
beaten up."
It was seven o'clock when the boys finally came to the south bank of the
rivulet, in the vicinity of the place where Sandy had encountered the
bear. The sun was now well in the west and the south side of the line of
cliffs lay in heavy shadows.
"If there's any deviltry going on," Will said, pointing to the summits
above, "it's right over there under those peaks!"
"I guess there's plenty of room under the peaks for mischief to be
plotted," Ed suggested, "I can see pigeon holes all along the cliff."
"Caves, do you mean?" asked Will.
"Sure," was the reply. "Those cliffs are of volcanic formation, and some
of the strata are softer than others, and the water has cut into the
heart of the range in many places."
"One would naturally suppose that such openings would be filled with ice
in Alaska," Will suggested.
"They may be filled with ice in the winter," answered Ed, "but in the
summer time they are hiding places for bears and crooked miners."
The boys advanced to the edge of the stream and Will swept his field
glass along the distant slope.
Presently he handed the glass to Ed.
"Tell me what you see," he said.
"I see something that looks like the eye of a wild animal looking out
over the valley!" answered the boy. "What can it be?"
"My first idea was that some one had built a fire in a cave," Will
answered, "but the more I look at it, the more I suspect that the light
comes from an electric."
"Then that must be the boys!" exclaimed Ed excitedly.
"But why don't they come on out?" asked Will, anxiously.
"Perhaps they have found Bert and don't want to leave him!" suggested
Ed.
While the boys watched the red light, which seemed to glimmer from the
very extremity of the cavern, it turned to blue!
"Now I've got it," cried Will almost dancing up and down in his
excitement, "you know what that means, don't you?"
"I can't say that I do!" replied Ed.
"It seems to me that the Portland Boy Scouts are not very well posted,"
laughed Will. "One of the boys--which one, I don't know, of course--is
talking to us in the Morse code!"
"Still I don't understand," said Ed.
"The red light means a dash," Will explained, "and the blue light means
the dot. Now we'll see if we can catch what the boy is saying."
"But where does he get the red and blue lights?" asked Ed.
"From red and blue caps screwed over the electric searchlight," was the
reply. "All of our electrics are provided with these signal caps."
"There, the light is red again!" cried Ed.
"I'll show how it works," Will said, bringing out his own flashlight and
unscrewing the false cover from the loading end.
Directly he had the blue and red caps out, and then the red one was
fastened over the eye of the searchlight.
"There, you see!" Will exclaimed turning on the light. "We've got a
beautiful red light and that means a Morse dash."
"I see," answered Ed. "And when you turn on the blue, that means a dot.
I learned the Morse code, of course, when I was admitted to the Boy
Scouts, but I never knew that it was used in that way."
"I wonder if he sees this?" asked Will as he swung the red light back
and forth in the growing twilight.
"We'll have to wait and see," replied Ed. "Of course, he'll answer if he
knows we're here!"
Swiftly the light changed from red to blue and from blue back to red
again. This took place several times and then Will said:
"Now, count!"
"Red," said Ed. "Red again. Red again."
"That's 'O'," exclaimed Will. "I guess we've got him at last!"
"Now there's another red," Ed went on. "Now there's a blue. Then one
more red. Oh, this seems to be easy!"
"That's 'K'!" cried Will. "O. K., don't you see? O. K. That means that
he knows we're here!"
"Glory be!" shouted Ed. "The boys are all right or they wouldn't be
signalling. I hope they've found Bert!"
Will signalled back "O. K.," and then the lads turned back up the
rivulet, the idea being to cross over to the north side.
"I want to find out why the boys don't show themselves instead of
signalling," Will explained. "There must be some good reason."
After a walk of half a mile upstream the boys found it possible to cross
without wading, and then they turned down toward the mouth of the cavern
where the lights had been seen.
As they did so, two figures detached themselves from a group of trees
which stood not far to the east and followed stealthily along behind
them.
If the lads could have heard the conversation carried on at that time
between Cameron and Fenton, they would have proceeded on their way with
less confidence.
"Just what we've been looking for!" chuckled Cameron.
"We surely have them trapped now!" replied Fenton.
"They'll naturally step into the outer cavern to see why their chums
don't walk out, and when they do so, we'll hold them up with our guns
until we can build up a barrier which will keep them in."
"One of the boys certainly must understand the code we are so anxious
about," Fenton observed. "That's the kid we want. We've certainly got to
find out what that message contains! If the people in the east are
trying to steal our plans, we certainly ought to know it!"
The boys, however, heard nothing of this talk and passed on down the
north side of the creek. As soon as they came opposite the cavern, in
sight of the light once more, they stopped and began signalling.
As they did so, Cameron and Fenton came nearer and waited anxiously for
the lads to enter the cavern.
"I'd like to know what all that signalling means!" said Cameron.
"Boy Scout signals," replied Fenton.
"You can't read them, can you?" asked the miner.
"Of course not," replied Fenton, "I'm no Boy Scout!"
The boys continued to signal back and forth until the situation was
fairly well understood. Will and Ed knew that Bert had been found and
that all three were barricaded in the cave.
They were disposed to make their way to the rescue of the boys without
further delay, but George advised them to wait until it became darker,
as Cameron might return at almost any moment. The news that Bert had
regained consciousness was very welcome and, confident of their ability
to thwart the plans of the miner, the boys looked forward to quiet hours
in the cabin.
Of course the boys had no suspicion that their enemies were close at
hand watching every movement. Cameron and Fenton became impatient, after
a time, and began advancing slowly toward the boys, who were now not
very far from the mouth of the outer cavern.
Something better than an hour passed, and then George signalled from the
interior of the cavern that it might be well for the boys to come up and
begin the work of removing the rocks which barred their egress.
"Sneak In," George signalled. "Don't show yourself more than you have
to. Cameron may be about! It may be that he has seen our signals
already!"
Sandy replied that he had not discovered any indications of the presence
of the miner, and the two boys advanced to the shelf of rock which faced
the opening. It was nine o'clock then.
"What's that strange noise?" asked Will as they moved along the shelf.
"You've got me!" replied Ed, "The ground's tipping!"
There came a deafening crash and the whole face of the cliff fell away!
When Will and Ed regained their feet and looked through the dust which
was rising over the scene, they saw that there was no longer any cavern
in view. The rock on which they stood was sliding down the slope.
"Buried alive!" cried Will with a sob, "Buried alive!"
CHAPTER XIX
VICTIMS OF THE QUAKE
The broad rock upon which the boys stood slid down the declivity for
some distance and brought up against a thicket of trees which stood not
far from the bank of the creek. The boys were fairly thrown from their
feet as the rock struck, but fortunately they were not injured in the
least. It was quite dark now, and the dust rising from the disturbed
earth made the scene still more dim.
The first thing the boys heard when they scrambled to their feet was a
faint moan and then a call for help.
"Sandy! George!" called Will.
There was no answer from above, but a faltering voice was heard just at
the edge of the thicket, where the rock had crushed into a hemlock of
unusual size.
"Help," the voice said. "Help!"
Will threw his searchlight in the direction of the sound and soon saw a
writhing figure in the underbrush which had been crushed down by the
fall of the rock.
"Who are you?" asked Will.
"Fenton," was the answer.
"Where'd you come from?" asked the boy in amazement.
"For God's sake," exclaimed the writhing man, "don't stop to ask
questions now. My leg is smashed under the rock upon which you are
standing! It is enough to say that I came here with Cameron!"
"Where is Cameron?" asked Will. Fenton pointed further down the slope.
"He fell over in that direction when a rock struck him," he said.
Will and George made a thorough examination of the slope where the
cavern had been before wasting any time on their injured enemies.
They called loudly to George and Sandy but received no answer.
"I'm afraid," Ed said, "that the boys were crushed under the falling
rocks! If they were, we ought to leave the men responsible for their
death where they are! They are not deserving of human help!"
"And yet," Will replied, "I can't find it in my heart to leave them in
such a plight. We ought at least to see if we can get them out of their
present cramped quarters."
After much exertion the boys managed to manufacture something like a
handspike from one of the broken saplings, and with this they began
prying at the heavy rock. It gave, but slowly.
While they worked away, hoping every instant to be able to draw Fenton
from under the stone and so lessen his sufferings, they saw the hand of
the man they were so unselfishly assisting stealing toward his hip
pocket.
"Watch him!" whispered Will. "He means to shoot us as soon as he is
released! That shows what kind of a dirty dog he is!"
As the rock was lifted by slow degrees and propped so that its weight
was not so heavy upon the unfortunate man the boys saw that his hand was
creeping closer to his hip pocket.
When at last the weight was removed, Fenton's first act was to attempt
to draw his weapon. Ed kicked it from his hand and then proceeded to tie
the fellow's wrists together behind his back.
"You're a dirty sneak," the boy exclaimed, "or you wouldn't try to kill
the people who have saved your life! From this time on, you get no
assistance from us!"
"I didn't mean anything!" whined Fenton.
"Don't lie about it!" fritted Will. "Where's Cameron?"
"You'll find him lower down!" was the reply.
"I hope he's broken his neck!" Ed cut in.
But Cameron had not broken his neck. Instead, he had broken an arm, and
one foot had been badly bruised by a falling stone. He was unconscious
when the boys lifted him and laid him in an easier position.
The two men were at once searched for weapons and left for the time
being to take care of themselves. There was no fear of their escaping,
for one of Fenton's legs had sustained a compound fracture and Cameron's
foot was badly injured.
"What next?" asked Will as the two boys stood facing the spot where they
believed George, Sandy and Bert to be buried under many tons of rock.
"It seems as if we ought to do something for the boys!"
"I'm afraid it's too late!" replied Ed, dejectedly.
"We never can dig under those rocks without help," commented Will,
"therefore, I think we'd better be on the watch for Tommy and Frank and
the surgeon. They surely ought to be somewhere near the cottage by this
time, if not already in it."
"If they've had such blooming bad luck as we have," Ed observed,
"they're probably in jail somewhere! I don't think I ever saw anything
in a worse mess! The very Old Nick seems to be after us!"
"This," Will observed with a grave smile, "is what we call a quiet
little Boy Scout excursion! We have visited the Pictured Socks, the
Everglades, the Great Continental Divide, the Hudson Bay country and got
trapped in an anthracite mine in Pennsylvania since we started out on
our quests for adventure."
"You seem to have found adventure all right!" smiled Ed.
"You bet we have!" replied Will.
The boys made still another inspection of the spot where the cliff had
fallen, and thought that they heard a faint call from the inside.
"They are there!" cried Will. "I'm sure they're there, and alive!"
"But they can't live there very long!" suggested Ed. "So we'd better be
doing something to get them, out!"
"The first thing to do," Will stated, "is to signal to the other
fellows. I'm sure Tommy and Frank must be in with the surgeon before
this!"
"There'll be plenty of work for the surgeon, I imagine," Ed added.
"I'm afraid so," Will admitted.
"But how are you going to signal to the cabin?" asked Ed.
"Indian smoke signals!" was the reply.
Almost before the words were out of Will's mouth, Ed was gathering both
dry and green branches from the thicket.
"If the boys are at the cabin, or even on their way there," Will
continued, "they'll be sure to see the signal, for the night is not so
very dark now, and the land where we are is considerably higher than the
moraine upon which the cabin is built. We'll have to get a blazing fire
of dry wood and then pile on green branches."
"That ought to make a smudge visible ten miles off!" said Ed.
"Not quite so far as that!" smiled Will, "but it's a sure thing the
signals ought to be seen as far as the cabin."
"Perhaps this earthquake shook the cabin down," suggested Ed. "I heard a
racket over to the south which seemed to indicate that the moraine was
being crumpled up like a piece of leather in a blaze."
"It seems to me," Will agreed, "that the earthquake did change the map
of Alaska in some particulars. Now, if you've got enough dry wood, we'll
start the fire and in five minutes we'll be ready for the green boughs!"
Two roaring fires were soon going on the mountainside, and then both
Cameron and Fenton pleaded to be assisted nearer to the circle of
warmth. They were both shivering with the cold.
"We ought to give you a swift toss into the blaze!" exclaimed Will. "And
we may do it, too," he went on, "if we find that our chums have been
brought to their death by your abducting them!"
"We had nothing to do with their being in the cave!" lied Cameron.
"What were you doing in the edge of the thicket?" asked Ed.
"We were watching you and your friends," was the reply. "We thought that
you were in quest of our mine!"
"Did you see those red and blue lights?" asked Will.
"Certainly we did," replied Cameron.
"Well, they told the story of what has taken place since the boys left
the cabin to follow your footsteps last night, so you may as well save
your breath. Lies won't help you any!"
However, the lads managed to bring the two men closer to the fire and
then set about piling on more green boughs.
"Now," Will said, as he stood regarding the two columns of smoke with no
little satisfaction, "if our friends are within five miles of us, they
ought to understand that we are in need of a little friendly
assistance."
Time and again the two boys went back to the place where the cavern had
been and listened patiently for some further indication that their
friends were still alive. Several times they heard the rumbling of a
voice but they could not distinguish the words of it.
Finally Will went back to where Cameron lay on the ground by the fire
and asked abruptly:
"Is your name Garman, Cameron or Brooks?"
The fellow gave a quick start of surprise but made no answer.
"Is this man Fenton the clerk who stole the machine drawings?" was the
next question. "Where are the plans now?"
"I don't know anything about any plans!" declared Cameron.
"What do you fellows expect to do with the plans?" asked Will.
"We haven't got them!" was the surly reply.
"Don't lie about it!" Will advised. "We know that the plans were sent to
Fenton's employer and that Fenton stole them."
"How do the plans concern you?" demanded Cameron.
"We don't want the plans because they are alleged to represent a
valuable invention," Will replied. "We want them because they are needed
in the criminal court of Chicago."
"I suppose you boys planned this costly and dangerous expedition for the
purpose of seeing how the plans look!" sneered Fenton.
"That's about the size of it!" replied Will.
"Well, we don't know anything about the plans!" declared Cameron, "and
we wouldn't give you any information on the subject if we did!"
"All right," Will replied. "We can tie you up out here and the mosquitos
will do the rest!"
Before Will could ask the question which was on his lips, three quick
pistol shots came from the south.
"There!" the boy said excitedly, "the signals have brought a response!"
"Friend or foe?" asked Ed.
"That's more than I know!" Will replied.
CHAPTER XX
DOWN IN THE CHASM
When Tommy, Frank, Sam and the doctor started toward the bottom of the
chasm in order that they might reach the spot from which the smoke
signal was ascending on the other side, they anticipated rough going,
but the actuality was much worse than anything which had been expected.
The soil extended only six or eight feet. Passing this they came to a
point where the solid glacier had been opened by the earthquake.
The break was uneven, there being little shelves and ledges upon which
the feet might rest, but the going was uncertain for all that.
The roaring of the fast-lifting torrent prevented conversation, and the
darkness made signalling impossible except when the searchlights were
held in position.
It was very cold at the bottom of the break, too, and the boys felt
their hands growing numb.
However, they proceeded with good speed until they came to a point where
the current had swept the tree trunks far apart and parallel with each
other. Here it became necessary for them to take the chance of a long
jump. When it came Sam's turn to make the leap, the log upon which he
struck rolled under his weight and he went down under the wreckage and
rush of water.
Frank and Tommy sprang to his assistance at once, reaching down in the
hope of getting hold of his hand, but the swift current carried the boy
along until he was beyond their reach.
They saw his head come to the surface and saw him strike out for the
floating logs on the north side of the chasm.
Then the bushy top of a tree drifted down upon him and he went under.
The boys stood for a moment as if paralyzed at what had taken place, and
then Tommy sprang into the mass of floating boughs and, clinging to one
which sustained his weight, called out to Frank to turn his searchlight
on the place where he stood.
Frank did as requested, but it showed only a half-frozen and dripping
boy clinging to the boughs of a tree which was already beginning to drop
down beneath his weight.
The lads had about abandoned all hope of rescue when Sam's head once
more appeared above the surface. He was within a short distance of Tommy
and the boy, dropping his searchlight, sprang toward him.
He succeeded in getting hold of the boy's arm.
Then Frank, appreciating the situation, dropped in and, while retaining
hold of a reasonably firm log on the west side of the chasm, caught the
rescuer by the hand. Doctor Pelton, who had been creeping nearer to the
point of danger, now seized Frank by the arm and slowly and with great
effort the human chain drew the half-drowned boy to the little platform
of logs and brush upon which the doctor stood.
Sam lay there for a moment panting and shivering, and then sprang to his
feet. The north wall was still to climb.
The slope here was more gradual and all four soon found themselves at
the top of the chasm, wet and cold, but on the side where the Boy Scout
signal had shown.
"We ought to tell the boys we are coming, hadn't we?" asked Tommy.
He drew his automatic from his pocket as he spoke and pressed the
trigger, but there was no explosion.
"Try mine!" advised Doctor Pelton. "I guess I'm the only person who
didn't get wet."
As he spoke the doctor fired three quick shots.
"I wonder if they'll answer?" asked Tommy.
"They will if they can," replied Sam. "I don't know your chums, of
course, but when a Boy Scout sends up a signal for help and shots are
fired, it is only good manners to acknowledge the courtesy."
No answering shots came for a moment, however, for Will and Ed were at
that moment some distance away from the place where their automatics had
been thrown after having been taken from Cameron and Fenton.
The shots came before long, however, and the party of wet and shivering
boys pressed on.
"I'd like to know what the boys are doing so far away from the cabin,"
Tommy grumbled. "They ought to have sense enough to stay put!"
The party was met just beyond the illumination of the fire by Will and
Ed, who greeted their chums with such cordiality that a rather perilous
situation was at once suspected.
"What are you boys doing out here in the scenery, anyhow?" demanded
Tommy. "You ought to be at home in the cabin with a hot supper ready for
us! You always go wrong when I go away!" he added with a grin.
"There's no time to tell long stories now," Will hastened to say. "The
thing we've got to do is to pry open that mountain and dig George, Sandy
and Bert out."
"Are they dead?" asked Tommy, turning very white.
"There's some one alive in there," replied Will. "We hear something
which sounds like the human voice but we can't distinguish any words."
"Earthquake?" asked Tommy.
"Earthquake!" replied Will.
"But how----"
Will cut Frank off with a gesture and pointed to the cliff.
"We've got to get to work!" he said.
Just then a low groan reached the ears of the members of the group and
Doctor Pelton sprang toward the place where Cameron and Fenton lay.
Tommy dashed after him and looked down on the two men.
"Where did you get 'em?" he asked.
"We didn't get 'em," was the reply. "The earthquake got 'em."
"Then I'll bet they were trying to do something to Bert!" Tommy
declared.
"Right, little man!" replied Will. "But we haven't got time to talk
about it now. This, I suppose," he added, turning to the surgeon, "is
the doctor you brought from Cordova?"
"That's Doctor Pelton," Tommy answered, "and this," he continued,
pointing to Sam, "is Sam White, Bulldog Patrol, Portland, Oregon. He
isn't as hungry as he looks to be, for we fed him up good and proper on
the way out!"
During this brief introduction, Sam and Ed had been eyeing each other
with half concealed grins.
"You boys seem to know each other," Tommy said.
"That's my chum," Sam replied, pointing to Ed. "I saw fit to seek my
fortunes in town while he made a break for the mines."
The boys greeted each other warmly and then all turned their attention
to that portion of the cliff where the caverns had once stood.
"They're still alive," Frank exclaimed as he reached a little fissure in
the rock and bent downward. "I can hear some one talking!"
"Did you say that George and Sandy and Bert were all in there?" asked
Tommy, turning to Will. "How did they get in there?"
"They were all in there just before the earthquake," replied Will. "I
can't stop now to tell you how it all happened. They were signalling to
us when the shock came."
"Signalling, how?" asked Tommy.
"Morse code, red and blue lights!" replied Will. "It's all the work of
the miner and his bum friend," Will continued. "The boys were barricaded
in the cave when the earthquake stirred things up, and the same
convulsion which wrecked the cave injured the two men who were
responsible for the condition the boys were in. Now you know all about
it that I'm going to tell you until we get the lads out and get back to
the cabin!"
"They're not dead, anyway," Frank exclaimed "I can hear Sandy's voice!"
CHAPTER XXI
EXPLAINING CORDOVA INCIDENTS
"I've found the door to the hole in the ground!" shouted Tommy, a few
moments later, as he sent a great rock rolling down the slope.
The boys rushed to the opening so made and were overjoyed at seeing a
light in the cavity thus exposed.
"Your door isn't big enough!" laughed Frank. "A good-sized cat couldn't
get through there!"
"What are you boys talking about?" came a voice from the inside.
"Another one of those foolish questions!" laughed Tommy. "We're not
talking at all, little man!" he continued. "We're getting our shoes
shined! What are you doing in there?"
"We're not in here at all!" replied Sandy. "We're up on the Masonic
Temple, watching a Columbia Yacht Club regatta!"
"Aw, cut it out!" advised Will. "Are you boys all safe?"
"Sure we're all safe!" answered Sandy, "George has a grouch because he
hasn't anything to eat here, but the rest of us are all right!"
"Where's Bert?" asked Frank.
"In here!" was the answer.
"We brought a surgeon for him," Frank went on.
"He doesn't need a surgeon now!" replied George. "What he needs more
than anything else is a cook!"
"We'll give him two cooks!" shouted Tommy.
"Why don't you hurry up and get us out?" demanded Bert, in a weak voice.
"If you remain in there a few weeks," Tommy laughed, "perhaps you'll get
so thin you can crawl out of this crack!"
"Well, get to digging!" replied George.
"And for the love of Mike," exclaimed Sandy, "when you get to digging,
don't drop any rocks on top of us! We have a little hole here now about
four feet square!"
After making a study of the situation and advising with Doctor Pelton as
to the proper course to pursue, the boys began prying at a large rock
which lay almost on top of the shelf upon which the boys had ridden to
the thicket. The rock moved, but grudgingly.
"If you can move that rock," the doctor said, "I think the one just
above it will slide down and leave an opening large enough for the boys
to pass out of. It ought not to be much trouble to move it!"
Notwithstanding the doctor's predictions, the boys worked at the rock
with their home-made handspikes for an hour before it broke loose and
rattled down upon the shelf just above the fire.
"Come out of that now," cried Tommy stooping down and looking into the
cavern. "Come on out, now!"
Sandy was not long in obeying instructions. George came next and then
the two lads turned about and lifted Bert out of his cramped position.
"That pigeon hole we've been occupying is about four inches square!"
Sandy declared. "And I'm just about dead for a good long breath of fresh
air! I never knew before how good air tasted."
Bert glanced around the circle of faces and smiled amusedly as he saw
that his chum was there with the rest.
"Where'd you go, Frank?" he asked.
Frank hastened to the lad's side and bent over him.
"I headed for the cabin," he answered, "and missed it. The Indian smoke
signal brought the boys out and they fed me up."
Will now approached the spot where the two boys were talking and pointed
to Cameron and Fenton now sitting with their faces illuminated by the
blaze. They both scowled at the inspection.
"Which one of those men gave you the clout on the head?" Will asked.
"That fellow with the alfalfas," replied Bert.
"And he stole the code message you were carrying?"
"I don't know!" replied Bert. "I had it when he came into the cabin and
began talking with me and I haven't thought of it since. Was it stolen?"
"You bet it was!" replied Frank. "But we've been to Cordova and got a
duplicate of it!"
Cameron and Fenton scowled fiercely as they listened to the
conversation.
"Have you got the code message with you now?" asked Will.
"Sure I have!" answered Frank.
"Suppose you read it, then."
Frank took an envelope from his pocket, tore off one end, and brought
out an ordinary sheet of letter paper bearing the heading of the
wireless company. The boys gathered about him eagerly.
"It isn't very much!" Frank said with a laugh. "Say, you two fellows,"
he added, waving the paper in the direction of Cameron and Fenton,
"would, you like to hear this code despatch read?"
"You bet they would," cut in Sandy. "That's all they've been thinking
about for the last two days!"
"Well, it's short and sweet and very satisfying!" Frank laughed.
"Aw, read it!" demanded Tommy. "What's the use of making a monkey of
yourself? Let's see what it has to say for itself."
Frank bent a searchlight on the paper and read:
"Will Smith, in camp near Katalla, Alaska: The machine plans have been
traced to the cabin to which you were directed. Make close examination
there before looking elsewhere. Horton."
"What do you know about that, Cameron?" asked Will with a smile. "Are
the plans really hidden in our cabin?"
"Your cabin!" sneered Cameron.
"I guess the cabin belongs to us as much as it does to you!" Tommy cut
in. "Are the machine plans hidden there?"
"What do you want of the machine plans?" demanded Cameron.
"They don't belong to you!" roared Fenton.
"We have no claim upon them," replied Will. "In fact, we have no use for
them at all, except that we want to identify the mark of a human thumb
which soiled one of the papers."
"All lies!" shouted Cameron.
"I'm telling you the truth," declared Will.
"Then why didn't you come right to me and say so?" demanded Cameron.
"You didn't give us a chance!" replied Will.
"Are the plans hidden in the cabin?" asked Sandy.
"This is all a faked-up story you are telling me!" Fenton shouted.
"Whoever wired you that the plans were in the cabin didn't know what he
was talking about! We don't know anything about the plans."
"That doesn't agree with what Cameron just said," Frank laughed.
"Cameron doesn't know anything about the plans, either," raged Fenton.
"Are you the clerk who stole the plans from your employer?" asked Will.
"I tell you that I don't know anything about any plans!" stormed Fenton.
"Cameron and I are prospecting this moraine for gold, and we have no
interest in any plans whatever!"
"And yet Cameron gave Bert a crack on the coco and stole the code
message!" suggested Will.
"He probably thought the message referred to our mining properties!"
declared Fenton. "We had a right to suppose it had."
"Then you won't tell us where the plans are?" demanded Will.
"I tell you that I don't know anything about the plans," screamed
Fenton. "I never saw the plans."
"All right," Will replied. "We'll leave you fellows out here to think
the matter over. By morning you will probably know where the plans are
hidden. The mosquitos may be able to convince you."
"A little meditation may refresh his memory," Frank said.
"What have you got to do about it, anyhow?" demanded Cameron. "I don't
think you've got any right to butt in here!"
"Who is that freshie?" asked Fenton.
"Frank Disbrow," replied the doctor with a smile. "He's the son of the
military officer in charge of the military stations in Alaska."
The boys all turned and regarded Frank curiously.
"So that's why the walls all fell down when you knocked!" exclaimed
Tommy. "That's why the federal officer refused to make any arrests.
That's why Jamison returned the money and gave us the use of his motor
boat. I begin to understand some of the things that took place at
Cordova now. Why didn't you tell us something about it before we had all
that trouble?"
"Oh, I didn't want to mix father up in the combination," Frank replied
with a smile. "Besides," he added, "it did look something like piracy."
"It certainly did," observed Doctor Pelton. "If Frank hadn't been a
member of the pirate crew, I rather imagine that you boys would be
cooling your heels in some Alaska prison about now. Of course, you would
have been released in time, but the affair would have made you
considerable trouble."
"Who's Bert, then?" demanded Tommy.
"Bert is the son of a prominent federal official at Chicago," replied
Frank. "But we've had enough of this," the boy declared modestly. "I
didn't do any more than any other boy would have done."
"You undertook that long trip out to the cabin when you didn't have to!"
exclaimed Will. "That was good of you!"
CHAPTER XXII
THE PLANS AT LAST
With a parting glance at Cameron and Fenton, the boys, accompanied by
the doctor, turned away in the direction of the cabin.
"Wait!" shouted Fenton. "Don't go off and leave us in this plight! We'll
starve to death if you do!"
"What about those plans?" demanded Will.
"I'll help you find the plans!" screamed Cameron. "I'll see that you get
the plans; if you get us out of this scrape!"
"Keep still!" commanded Fenton.
"I refuse to keep still!" declared Cameron. "I'm not going to be left
here to be devoured by insects. Tell me the truth about the plans," he
went on, "what do you want of them?"
"We want to introduce the plans in evidence in the criminal court at
Chicago," replied Will.
"And that will betray our secret," commented Fenton fiercely. "Those
plans are worth millions of dollars to us! They represent the only
perfect mining machine ever invented."
"We don't care anything about your mining machine," Will answered.
"Have you noticed anything peculiar about the plans?" Frank asked.
"Nothing except that they are dirty!" was the reply.
"Marked up with thumb prints, for instance?"
"Yes, there are thumb prints," replied Cameron.
"Well, we want the thumb prints," Frank laughed.
"You're a fool if you listen to any such arguments!" screamed Fenton.
"Why should these gutter snipes want the papers for the thumb prints?"
"That's what we want them for!" insisted Frank. "Are you going to tell
us where the plans are?"
"I'll tell you!" replied Cameron.
Fenton turned his back on his friend and refused to discuss the question
further. When the lads started away carrying Cameron on a rude litter,
they left his follow conspirator lying by the fire.
"Please bring him along," pleaded Cameron. "He'll die if you leave him
there! I can tell you where the plans are, and I'll do so, whether he
likes it or not. This has been a misunderstanding all around. We were
only trying to protect our interest in the mines which we believed to
exist in this neighborhood, and in the plans, which we believed to be
very valuable!"
Thus urged, the boys turned back and constructed a second stretcher for
Fenton. The journey to the cabin was a long one, but the shelter was
reached about daylight. Then Tommy at once began the preparation of
breakfast.
"We'll have to get out pretty soon," Will laughed, "because the
population of this county seems to be increasing with amazing rapidity.
At the present time we have four Beavers, two Foxes, and two Bulldogs
besides a very eminent surgeon. In other words," the boy went on, "we
have this collection of wild animals in addition to a very eminent
surgeon and two men with busted legs. If some one doesn't bring in
provisions pretty soon, we'll have to exist on mosquito soup!"
"The mosquitos have been living off us long enough!" Tommy answered.
"They ought not to find fault if we begin living off them!"
"I heard you boys talking about thumb prints on a set of plans," Doctor
Pelton said, addressing Will. "I'd like to know what it all means."
"The story is soon told," Will answered. "On a night in Chicago not long
ago, three men, Spaulding, Hurley and Babcock, worked until nearly
daylight on the plans which we came to Alaska to find. They are experts
in their line and were examining the plans of an invention which the
inventor claimed would revolutionize mining.
"The three men rejected the plans as impractical, and Spaulding and
Hurley left for home, leaving Babcock at the office. After the departure
of the two men, the company's safe was broken open and robbed of a large
sum of money. Naturally the men who had worked in the office during the
night were questioned concerning the disappearance of the cash.
Spaulding and Hurley replied, truthfully, that they had left Babcock in
the office and that the safe was intact at the time of their departure.
"Babcock's reply to this statement was that he had not been at the
office that night at all, and that he could furnish a perfect alibi
which he proceeded to do. Spaulding and Hurley were arrested and thrown
into prison, while Babcock, secure in his fraudulent alibi, was not even
suspected until Mr. Horton, a noted criminal lawyer, was retained by the
two respondents.
"In discussing the case, Spaulding and Hurley explained how Babcock had
participated in the discussion of the plans, and added that if the plans
could be found, his thumb marks would be noted on the paper. They said
he handled the attached sheets carelessly, and that the marks of both
thumbs showed very plainly."
"That will be a perfect defense!" said the doctor.
Cameron and Fenton who had been listening intently to the recital, now
both spoke at once:
"Were the plans really rejected by the experts?" they asked.
"They certainly were!" replied Will.
"Then we've been through all this trouble for nothing!" exclaimed
Fenton.
"If you two fellows hadn't been engaged in this dirty game," Will said
severely, "you would have been mixed up in some other dirty deal, so
you're probably no worse off than you would have been in any event."
"If you'll go to the peg driven into the wall near the north window,"
Cameron remarked, "pull out the peg and run your finger into the augur
hole, you'll find the plans rolled into a very small package."
Will rushed to the peg indicated, and the plans were soon in his hands.
"This settles it!" exclaimed Will. "The case is finished!"
"Are the thumb marks there?" asked Frank.
"Plain as the nose on your face!" replied the boy.
"And to think that they have been right under our nose all the time!"
exclaimed Tommy. "I shall certainly have to partake of a large meal
before I can recover my reason!"
"And to think that, after we came all the way to Alaska, we received the
correct tip regarding the hiding place from Chicago by wireless!"
"I know how the people at Chicago came to discover the whereabouts of
the plans," shouted Fenton. "There's a sneak of a clerk in the office
where I was employed who gave me away. He saw me looking over the plans
and betrayed me."
"Perhaps he didn't want to see you make a fool of yourself!" Will
suggested. "He probably knew the plans had been rejected."
"I'll settle with him!" declared Fenton.
"If you do," Will replied, "you'll serve a term in an Alaska prison for
abduction!"
"Yes," Fenton went on, "he probably wired the truth to Chicago after the
search for the plans began in the office! When he saw me looking over
the plans, I was obliged to tell him what they represented. I also told
him where we were going to hide the plans, and of course, he had to wire
that, too!"
"That clerk must be rewarded!" smiled Tommy.
Such a supper as the boys ate that night!
Notwithstanding the dreary predictions of Tommy, there was plenty of
provisions in the cabin, and the party feasted on the game which was
brought in as an addition to the supply until they returned to
civilization.
They were obliged to bridge the chasm in order to reach Katalla, where
they found the Jamison motor boat waiting for them.
They also found the wheelsman, Boswell, waiting for them there, he
having made the trip from Cordova in a tug. At the request of Jamison,
who had been released after the departure of the boys, he had made the
journey in order to take possession of the motor boat.
When, after many delightful trips about the Gulf of Alaska, the Boy
Scouts all turned their faces homeward, the wheelsman was left in charge
of the boat. They afterwards learned that Jamison never claimed the
craft, and that Boswell retained undisputed possession of it.
Doctor Pelton saw that Cameron and Fenton were well cared for on their
arrival at Katalla, and a handsome present was sent to the federal
officer by Frank Disbrow.
Frank and Bert accompanied the Boy Scouts to Chicago and later on became
very warm friends. The two members of the Fox patrol, Sam White and Ed
Hannon, traveled with the boys as far as Portland.
When the boys reached Chicago, Babcock was arrested and the unmistakable
thumb prints secured the immediate release of Hurley and Spaulding.
"There's one thing we've forgotten," Tommy said as the boys landed in
Chicago, one autumn morning.
"What's that?" asked Will.
"We neglected to bring back that bear hide!"
"I should think you'd want that bear hide!" laughed Frank.
"I should think you'd be ashamed to look the bear in the face!" declared
Sandy.
The boys received the promised reward for the discovery of the plans and
once more settled down in Chicago to take up their studies.
THE END.
BLACK ART IN CINCINNATI
Mr. Quinsey of Cincinnati was not an Apollo; neither had he ever assumed
a name other than his own. He had never conducted a scheme to defraud by
use of the mails; nor had he ever robbed a post-office or shot any body;
yet his character is so interesting that I cannot, in justice to myself,
omit a passing notice.
Quinsey was known as a mesmerist, a ventriloquist, an illusionist, a
prestidigitator and a master of the Black Art, and occasionally in
"pleasing sorcery that charms the sense" he would entertain audiences at
church fairs, picnics and the like for simple fees, while he found much
pleasure amusing friends gratuitously at their homes, at his home and
sometimes at his place of business.
One evening, at a little entertainment given by himself in neighboring
Glendale, after he had knocked the spots off of several decks of cards;
after he had taken half a dozen watches that belonged to people in the
audience from the janitor's pocket; after he had received communications
from departed spirits; after he had removed the head from a beautiful
woman and had made the removed head talk; after he had paralyzed four
men and a woman on the stage and had allowed the committee to stick pins
in them, and after the curtain had dropped, one of the awe-stricken
auditors, who had been instrumental in introducing Mr. Quinsey in
Glendale, asked the wonderful magician why he did not follow this
business in preference to any other?
The professor smiled blandly and appeared silent, but a voice that
seemed to come from the bakery underneath the hall, was heard to remark
in a deep melodious tone: "He has something better."
Quinsey was superintendent of what was known as the night set in the
registry division of the Cincinnati post-office, and his hours of labor
were from 10:30 P. M. to 7 A. M. In this set were employed six or seven
clerks who worked under the superintendant's direction, and who
performed practically the same kind of work that he did. It was their
duty to properly record all registered matter that arrived in Cincinnati
between 4 P. M. and midnight from the various railroad lines centering
there, rebill it and pouch it in the through registry pouches to be
dispatched in the morning.
There were something like thirty bills to make out, and the same number
of pouches to properly close and send out. When the mails were running
heavy the clerks never had a minute to spare, but when they were light,
as they frequently were one or two nights each week, there was some
opportunity for sociability and innocent amusement.
On these occasions Quinsey would sometimes tell the boys how easy it was
for people to be mistaken; how much quicker was the hand than the eye;
how it was that frequently things were not what they appeared; how easy
it was to deceive the keenest intellect by doing something different
than your actions would indicate, and how figures and objects are
materialized and made to do their master's bidding.
Sometimes he would illuminate his ideas by a few practical
illustrations, and after the young men had seen him shake any number of
big silver dollars, a wheelbarrow full of handkerchiefs, and a lot of
lanterns from a common gesture, and, in transfixed amazement, had beheld
ordinary registered letters vanish before their eyes, without being able
to tell where they went, they longed for the nights to come when the
work was light. Quinsey was immense!
About this time, while in Chicago, Kidder came to me for conference with
an armful of documentary evidence of skillful depredations. Here were
the envelopes in which registered letters had from time to time been
mailed at offices in Southern Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West
Virginia, addressed to offices in all portions of the great Northwest,
and which had been rifled of large portions of their contents. Everyone
of the letters had passed through the Chicago post-office, where they
had been handled during the night time. At first glance one would say it
surely indicated trouble in Chicago.
But why, if the thief was in Chicago, did he confine himself to
operations on the letters from this particular section, when he could
probably have access to those from any other as well. A few minutes
later when we discovered that everyone of the letters referred to had
also passed through the Cincinnati office, and in every instance had
been dispatched from that office in the morning in through pouches to
Chicago, Kidder adjusted his eye-glasses, and offered as a reward, for
the capture of the villain, a claim near that beautiful miniature
salt-water sea, known as Devil's Lake in Dakota.
On the following morning when I tapped Herrick on the shoulder in
Cincinnati, and asked who wrote the Chicago registry bills at night that
were dispatched in the morning, he answered, "Quinsey," and seemed so
amused at my question that he asked why I wanted to know.
"For the reason that I think whoever is doing it is too inquisitive."
"Well, if its Quinsey, I am afraid we'll have our hands full to catch
him, for he's just a little bit the slickest man in America. He does all
the seemingly impossible things ever heard of, and he does them right
before your eyes, too. Quinsey is absolutely marvelous. Why, one night I
was in the registry room looking around when, suddenly, I discovered my
watch was gone. I had looked to see what time it was when I entered.
Well, a little later somebody found it in the Boston pouch, with a tag
on it marked: 'Covington.'"
"Yes," said Salmon, who was listening, "and I understand he charms
birds, too; while somebody told me a few days ago that at cards he was
so expert that nobody would sit in with him; that when it came his deal
he could hold anything he wanted; that the high cards, figuratively
speaking, would come to him in carriages; and remain till after the
show-down."
The next day I went to Lexington, Ky., and while there I wrote a letter
to Mr. Abram Hayden, of Aberdeen, Dakota, on one of the letter-head
sheets of Mills, Jackson & Johnson, which read as follows:
"Dear friend Abe:
Jim Turner was in from East Hickman half an
hour ago and left the enclosed $200 for me to send to
you, and he said you would know how to use it. He
has just sold a car-load of mules to Springer, of Cincinnati,
but he said he believed there was more profit
in loaning money at 20 per cent. in Dakota, than there
was in raising mules in Kentucky at present prices.
Say, Abe, when are you coming back after Mary?
I heard Min. Stevens and some of the girls in her set
say it was considered a sure thing. Hope it is; for of
all the real fine blue-grass girls around these parts I
think Mary is the----well never mind, old boy, if
I wasn't married I'd try and prevent her going to
Dakota. You better hurry up.
Jim just stuck his head in the door and told me to
tell you if you couldn't get a gilt edge loan at 20, not
to let it go less than 18. Jim is a cuss.
I suppose your brother wrote you what happened
up at Gil. Harper's recently.
If the cyclones haven't got you by the time this
reaches Aberdeen, write.
Very truly, your friend,
FRANK N. MILLS."
This letter I registered at Lexington and at night, about 11 o'clock,
when I had followed it into the Cincinnati post-office, Herrick and
Salmon were in the money-order division on a step-ladder, peering
through a glass transom into the registry division. As soon as possible
I joined them, and patiently we waited for Quinsey to turn a trick.
It was exactly two A. M. when he commenced on the Chicago bill. He
reached the letter from Lexington at precisely 2:45. It was fat and
tempting. Herrick was on the top of the ladder at that instant, and he
sent a peculiar thrill of surprise through me when he turned and
whispered:
"Hush, hush, he has picked it up."
"Now he's feeling of it."
"He's looking at the back of the of the R. P. E. (the outside envelope)
to see how well it's sealed."
"He's laid it down and placed a book over it; somebody is moving
around."
"It's quiet now and he's looking at the back again."
"Hush, don't move, he's carefully feeling again."
"It's under the blotter now; somebody at the other table got up to get a
drink. There's no one at his table but himself."
"Hush now, he's making a close examination to see how well its sealed."
"Hush now, for God's sake don't move; he's trying to open it with his
knife."
"Hush, hush, hush, he'll have it opened in an instant."
"Its open now, and he's looking at the letter envelope very closely."
"There, d----n it, some fellow has moved again and he's shoved it under
the blotter."
"Hush, hush, don't stir; he's feeling of the letter again."
"Hush, don't breathe, he's trying to raise the flap of the envelope; it
comes up hard; don't move."
"There, there, there, he's got it up."
"Hush, he's got the money out and is reading the letter."
"He's smiling as he reads."
"We must open the door and rush, in now."
"Come, be quick and be quiet; you know he's chain lightning."
"The door's unlocked; now, all together, go!"
An instant later there was a flutter, and all was over. The great
conjurer had at last performed an illusion that was not optical--an act
not mentioned on the bill.
Applause. Curtain. Prison.
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